A technical error with the online Student Government ballot resulted in a delay in announcing which write-in candidates earned spots on the SG during this fall’s election.
During the announcement of the results last Wednesday, Board of Elections Chair Anthony Dunham said that open positions could be filled with an application and appointment process through the SG Undergraduate Senate. But some open seats could still be filled by write-in candidates.
Student Activities Coordinator of Governance and Leadership Andrew Toczydlowski had results that showed that no write-in candidates had gained a clear majority, but these were results from last year’s fall election, he said.
Based on the results released Wednesday, the following positions remain open:
• Three out of the five SG Senate seats for the Class of 2012
• All five SG Senate seats for the Class of 2011
• One of the two SG Senate seats for the College of Arts and Sciences
• The one SG Senate seat for the School of Communication
“We had originally said from the write-in results that there are no clear winners from the races, so we had just kind of said that all of those positions would be appointed,” Toczydlowski said.
Dunham said that now that the correct election results have been identified, he will contact the appropriate write-in candidates Tuesday and Wednesday this week. If they accept the positions they were written in for, these candidates will fill the following positions:
• Two SG Senate seats for the Class of 2012
• One SG Senate seat for the Class of 2011
• One SG Senate seat for the School of Communication
Toczydlowski realized the results were faulty when Roger Deming, a junior in the School of Public Affairs who ran as a write-in candidate for a Class of 2012 Senate seat, e-mailed him asking for this election results.
Toczydlowski replied, saying that of 42 votes cast for write-in candidates, Deming received zero.
“Right away I knew there was some sort of error going on,” Deming said. “Because at the very least, I voted for myself, obviously, and I saw three of my friends physically vote for me.”
Dunham confirmed that Deming would be one of the candidates he will contact this week to fill an open position.
Deming says he also asked 10 to 12 of his other friends to vote for him as a write-in, as well, he said.
Toczydlowski e-mailed the Office of Information Technology about it Monday evening. The problem was found in the link from my.american.edu to the write-in candidates’ results, which was displaying last year’s results, he said.
OIT Web developer Marico Hawes said the issue was a “small typo type deal.”
Student Activities and the SG are looking for another method of logging elections in the future, according to Toczydlowski.
“We seem to have some consistent problems in working with OIT to facilitate elections,” he said. “We’re considering other options ... So we wouldn’t have to go through the third party to update the election. We could just do that ourselves.”
Dunham said there has not been an election cycle since he participated in the SG in the 2008 fall election that did not face OIT problems.
While the process of announcing the results of write-in candidates has been delayed several days this year, Toczydlowski said that Dunham assured him the technical problem has not affected the application and appointment process of open positions. The numbers also show that no write-in candidates gained enough votes to potentially oust the previously announced winners of the fall SG elections, he said.
mfowler@theeagleonline.com
What’s left?
• Three out of the five SG Senate seats for the Class of 2012 • All five SG Senate seats for the Class of 2011 • One of the two SG Senate seats for the College of Arts and Sciences • The one SG Senate seat for the School of Communication
What could be filled by the write-in winners?
• Two SG Senate seats for the Class of 2012 • One SG Senate seat for the Class of 2011 • One SG Senate seat for the School of Communication
