Senate Election might violate MSA bylaws

By Anna Koeppel and Jenna Youngs
March 19, 2008

The results of the MSA Senate election, which ended at 6 p.m. Wednesday, might be invalid, according to Missouri Students Association bylaws.

Chapter 5.02 of the bylaws state an election must run "over a 48-hour period lasting spanning the Monday before the date of the election until Wednesday." The election began at 6 p.m. Monday, but the first ballot - and any votes tallied with it - was thrown out and a new ballot was released to students at 9:22 p.m. Monday. Voting with the new ballot ended at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

The first ballots were cancelled because they lacked instructions for students about how to vote for more than one candidate. The new ballot included boxes next to each candidate's name to more easily allow students to vote for more than one person.

Board of Elections Commissioners Chairman Geoffrey Grammer said since the BEC contacted everyone who voted before the new ballots were released and told them to vote again, no votes were lost.

Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays said because the bylaws "very clearly" define that an election must last 48 hours, the BEC violated the bylaws by starting the new ballot at 9:22 p.m. Monday and ending the election about 45 hours later at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Mays said the BEC violated the spirit of a number of election rules, but the 48-hour oversight was the most blatant violation of explicit written rule.

Mays also said he is frustrated the BEC and Division of Information Technology knew a number of students were unable to vote with the electronic ballot because of a technical problem, but he thinks they did not do enough to ensure all students could vote. Some students received a message that stated they were "not eligible to vote in any active elections" when they attempted to sign onto the ballot at vote.missouri.edu. Division of Information Technology Director Terry Robb confirmed there was a problem and said developers were working to fix it, though wouldn't be able to do so before the election ended at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

To rectify the problem, the BEC created paper ballots for students who had problems signing in. The paper ballots were available in Brady Commons. Grammer said students who e-mailed the BEC to let them know they couldn't vote were notified to fill out a paper ballot or submit their votes to the BEC via e-mail.

Mays said all students should have been able to cast a valid electronic ballot. He said the technical problems prevented all students from being able to do so, and therefore the election was illegitimate.

"In any election where there are students who can't vote, the results cannot be certified," Mays said. "It's not a legitimate election."

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