After another round of debate, the Associated Students of Madison approved a change to freshmen Student Council elections to correct what they believed was originally just an oversight.

The vote to change the bylaw, which excluded 694 freshmen in last year’s election because of previously earned credits that qualified them academically as sophomore, was passed 15-1-2.

ASM Graduate Rep. Colin Ingram proposed an additional amendment to the proposal in which the freshmen election would not only include first-year students but also new incoming graduate students as well as transfer students.

“The definition of a freshman should be based off ASM membership status and not anything else,” Ingram said.

Previously ASM Graduate Rep. Erik Paulson suggested a similar notion, saying he believes these students are also being overlooked and should be included in elections.

Since then, Paulson retracted his original proposal for fear that rewording and defining the constitution could make the election invalid.

“I’m all about including all, but nothing would kill us on this campus more than having another failed election (like in 2006),” Paulson said.

Paulson referred to the 2006 spring election in which the results of Student Council election failed twice due to failures in the online voting system.

Other representatives also expressed concern about having a valid election and saving the argument Ingram brought up for another discussion.

“We are seeking to clarify an oversight 15 years ago in our original constitution,” ASM Letters and Sciences Rep. Adam Johnson said. “I think redefining freshmen as first-year students is well within that realm of clarification, whereas defining it to include all of these people — which I agree should be done — is an entirely different matter that needs to be addressed at some point.”

Ingram did not vote to pass the amendment and held strong to his belief to include all.

“To state that we are worried about constitutionality of bylaw changes in an election, and that we want to include all students of ASM and not exclude anyone from being able to represent this body, is despicable,” Ingram said. “Does this council not have the will to stand up for everyone who is a student on this campus?”

Graduate Rep. Katrina Flores, said including every student in elections was very important and intermixing different age groups is not logical. She said she does not agree that freshmen are so different from the transfer and new professional or graduate students, adding the council should look at including them as well.