E-board postpones decision on flawed SFC election results

The Elections Board said the ballot for the Student Fee Committee liaison positions in the student government election was flawed and unconstitutional in a meeting Wednesday, but postponed a decision on how to resolve the results in question.

Yazmin Estevez was one of the six candidates elected as a liaison on the SFC, but because of the flawed ballot, Petter Dahlgren may take her place in the committee.

The e-board initially attempted to use instant run-off voting to calculate the results for the liaison position. Instant run-off voting is a system that allows voters to list candidates in order of preference, but is only used for elections where there can be only one candidate elected. The SFC, however, has six available liaison seats.

The Elections Board used a weighted system to calculate the outcome of the SFC liaison election, which ended Saturday. The constitution states that this position should be decided by use of a plurality of votes–the candidates with the greatest number of votes are to be elected.

The SFC is made up of eight members including the chair. Six of the members are elected to their position, while one is appointed by the student body president. The committee is responsible for allocating approximately $12 million to student groups, including Athletics and the Vanguard.

To resolve the discrepancies in the liaison race results, Kyle Curtis, Elections Board chair, laid out three possible plans.

The board could decide to do nothing and keep Estevez on the SFC. They could decide to toss all the SFC liaison votes out and hold a special election for only SFC liaison positions.

A third option would be to use the votes that have already been cast by calculating the total number of votes per candidate without the weighted system. This option, which would put Dahlgren on the SFC, appears to be the only one that aligns with the ASPSU constitution.

Weighting the votes had the largest effect on how they were counted. The system that was used gave a first place preference six “points” and worked down to the last place preference who received one “point.” The ASPSU constitution states that each vote should count as only one vote.

The board tabled the discussion to allow time for members to talk with ASPSU Webmaster John Brown, who helped create the online ballot. The board wanted to talk to him in order to get a better understanding of why the weighted system was used and what options are available. The Elections Board will meet again on Friday at 4:30 p.m. and could make a decision of how to proceed.

Extending a sort of peace offering, Hannah Fisher, ASPSU president-elect, said she would agree to use her presidential appointment to retain Dahlgren as SFC liaison.

“We just don’t need another election that is long and drawn out,” Fisher said.

ASPSU Advisor Natalee Webb said that although Fisher’s suggestion would be an amicable solution, it would keep in place the results that are unconstitutional.

Senator elect Wil Smith said the “only fair option would be to do a re-vote.”

Curtis echoed this by saying that he believes at this point there is no solution in the constitution that can directly guide the board forward, but the most constitutional decision would be a re-vote.