Board of Elections to consider redoing SBP election

By Andy Thomason
Updated: 02/15/12 5:26pm
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Tonight, the Board of Elections will decide whether or not to redo Tuesday’s student body president election.

The announcement from board chairwoman Shruthi Sundaram comes after complaints from students who claim they were unable to vote because of issues with the voting website, and that this might have determined the outcome of the election.

Calvin Lewis beat out Tim Longest for second place by just four votes in the general election, securing a spot in the runoff election. Will Leimenstoll came in first with 47 percent of the vote.

Sundaram said the board’s decision should come no later than 9 p.m. tonight, and that she will consult Student Body President Mary Cooper, associate director of student activities and organizations Jon Curtis and Student Solicitor General Erik Davies.

Sundaram also said she has informed each of the three candidates of the board’s coming decision.

Published February 15, 2012 in Campus

13 comments

Just Watchin'
February 15, 2012 at 1:58 PM
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Honestly, is the Board of Elections capable of fixing the problems if there were another election?


Hangin' Chad...
February 15, 2012 at 2:15 PM
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Agreed that the tools provided for obtaining the vote were misleading and likely turned away thousands of frustrated voters. I almost gave up after several trial and error experiences. A do-over is definitely called for.

Does anyone know how to contact the Board of Elections directly to let them know how we as voters feel about this? We need to fill their in-boxes with do-over requests!


Rick Ingram
February 15, 2012 at 2:26 PM
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I didn’t cause this election drama. Just wanted everyone to know.


To be fair...
February 15, 2012 at 2:39 PM
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Yes, it’s unfortunate that the voting system was flawed, but the same system would be in use for another election. Every candidate was affected the same way, and the potential for error is shared among them. Each candidate knew of the potential problems ahead of time, and the results reflect their ability to mobilize. Calvin, for instance, heavily shared instructions of how to vote and encouraged people to register a day early. I believe Will did the same. And good for them!

Also, it was indicated right on the voting site that students could email their ballots to the BOE or Jon Curtis. There was plenty of potential to vote. If they didn’t follow the proper steps, that is their fault, and the candidates should not be held accountable.

Read more …

Another election will alienate students from the process. Turnout was already incredibly low — why make students resent the process even further?


onetwothree
February 15, 2012 at 2:42 PM
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Election changes can be frustrating, but to say that the results didn’t count is just ridiculous. It was equally challenging for all students. A re-do would only cause MORE instability in the election process.


Truth
February 15, 2012 at 3:22 PM
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In any normal election, a margin of 4 votes would require a recount at the least.


More True
February 15, 2012 at 3:39 PM
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To Truth: Lewis individually emailed nearly the whole student body and instructed them on how to vote in this year’s election (even instructing them to go as far as emailing the BOE if any problems occured). If you’re suggesting that Tim’s supporters lacked the basic capability to follow simple instructions, then the only thing a redo would accomplish would be to embarrass the Longest campaign and the BOE even further.


Truth
February 15, 2012 at 4:09 PM
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Did everyone read Calvin’s e-mail? Was the BOE able to fix every problem? I know about 13 people studying abroad in Ecuador who couldn’t vote for Tim yesterday but would’ve if the system was responsive.


@Truth
February 15, 2012 at 4:40 PM
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As stated by To be fair… the website encouraged any students that encountered problems to email their ballot to the BOE. Thus, it is unfair to state that the process made 13 study abroad students unable to vote. They could have emailed their votes in to counted.

A recount is understandable, as the margin between Calvin and Tim was incredibly close, but an entire re-vote discredits those who voted successfully and undermines Will’s accomplishment in receiving almost 47% of the votes. The distinction here should be between Tim and Calvin, and should not hinder the advancement of Will to a run-off vote.


Trilby
February 15, 2012 at 4:55 PM
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“Sundaram said studentlife.unc.edu won’t decrease voter turnout because it’s actually easier to use than ConnectCarolina. The registration process is quick and simple, she said.”

Calvin proved more insightful than the BOE about this.


FACT
February 15, 2012 at 5:00 PM
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All of this talk about re-doing elections, is NOT coming from ANY of the candidates or their campaign staff. It is coming from disenfranchised voters, STUDENTS who were not given the chance to vote for WHOEVER they wanted to vote for. Any decision today by the BOE is about how their system functioned, and what students have been communicating to them- not a matter of the results. All candidates were subjected to the same disadvantage.


Understanding
February 15, 2012 at 6:06 PM
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Many people fail to realize this: majority of the students that were unable to vote or lacked the necessary instructions to vote are GRADUATE students. There have never been any emails to those students about what they were supposed to do and most of all the graduate and professional schools were placed incorrectly in district 7 instead of 9 10 and 11. Many students realized there was an error and waited on the BOE to “fix” the issue as was stated, but it never happened. By that time the BOE email was full per the instructions and thus votes were lost and not counted. Graduate students have just as much a say in SBP as undergrads, SBP is representing the University community not just undergrads and therefore the technical flaw associated with the election per the duties of the BOE, demands at the minimum a re vote for SBP if not the congress districts as well (write ins were lost). Regardless of the outcome of the re vote, the election was flawed technically and resulted in an unfair election for EVERY candidate.


Ohai
February 15, 2012 at 8:24 PM
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Truth

> “As stated by To be fair… the website encouraged any students that encountered problems to email their ballot to the BOE. Thus, it is unfair to state that the process made 13 study abroad students unable to vote. They could have emailed their votes in to counted.”

Read more …

Sure and what were they supposed to do when the BOE email inbox got full and started bouncing emails after just a few hours?

This whole thing was a shambles.

 
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