The Student Association introduced a new electronic voting system to students who turned out for Tuesday’s Senate race.
Mary E. Brown, elections commissioner for the SA, said 1,422 students voted in the electronic election, but voter turnout dropped from the more than 3,000 who voted in last year’s Senate race.
Despite human errors that fouled the results for Cresswell Hall, Sessums Hall and Fraternity Row, Brown said the electronic voting system worked well.
“The electronic voting system did not cause the errors in the original election,” she said. “I think the students were very pleased with the electronic voting system. It was very quick and, because of the speed, the lines were very short.”
Another election for the Cresswell, Sessums and Fraternity Row positions will be held Tuesday in The Union lobby 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m., Brown said.
“The voting for Cresswell and Sessums halls is going to be redone because there was a human error in the ballots,” Brown said. “The name of a legitimate candidate was left off the ballot. The ballot for Fraternity Row also experienced human error in the classification of some of the students running. A few were wrongly classified as day or commuter students.”
The SA plans to use the electronic system in the upcoming Homecoming election, so Tuesday’s vote will be done on paper ballot, Brown said.
“This vote will not be electronic because we need ITS to work on our electronic voting system for the upcoming Homecoming elections instead,” she said.
The newly-elected Senate will have its first meeting Sept. 28, following a retreat Sept. 26, where it will watch a mock Senate meeting presented by experienced senators to learn Senate processes, Jeremy England, SA vice president, said.
“One of the first priorities of the Senate is going to be the appropriations bill,” he said.
“The treasurer and Senate committee work together to go over organizations’ applications for funding which are due Oct. 1,” England said. “We are going to try and make sure that each group requesting funding receives at least some funding. We want to ensure that the money gets back to the student body.”
Senators are direct representatives of the student body, SA President Adam Telle said. Students should find out who their new representatives are and go to them when they want something done, he added.
“Your senators are your go-to people. If you want something to be taken care of you talk to them,” Telle said. “These people are your official representatives, so use them.”
One of the first activities that the senate will be working to organize will be a campus outreach day, England said.
“Campus outreach day should be organized fairly quickly,” England said. “All the senators go out with note pads and pens and ask students what, if anything, they want to get done. This ensures that the Senate takes care of the interests of the students.”