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CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906
VOLUME 107, ISSUE 70
Tech glitches plague USC elections — again Richard Raycraft NEWS EDITOR In what is becoming an annual frustration, the University Students’ Council elections suffered through several technical glitches and categorization errors yesterday, leaving several types of students unable to vote for their representatives. While the exact nature of the issue was unclear, there are reports that upon signing in to vote, certain Science and Health Science students found that they did not have the option to vote for faculty councillors and senators, while several Western exchange students found that they could not vote at all. Despite making a “guarantee” to The Gazette on Monday that “there will be no technical glitches this year,” Pat Whelan, USC president, confirmed the voting issues. “We’re still looking into exactly what happened — we’ve heard that a few science students are having trouble voting,” he said yesterday. “We want to make sure that all the candidates for councillors know that the elections will be fair,” he continued. “The elections committee knows about the issue, and we’re still investigating what exactly happened and what are the best steps forward, but I promise you that if there has been any interference with the ballot the elections will be fair with those candidates affected.” Whelan did not comment specifically on what steps will be taken to rectify the issue in terms of fairness. Liam Brown, a French and International Relations student currently on exchange at the Sciences-Po Grenoble in Grenoble, France, expressed his frustrations at
I find it incredibly frustrating that the elections process hasn’t been perfected yet, both as a voter and a candidate. I’ve only participated in three elections, but all of them have had problems. — Liam Brown
An exchange student affected by voting problems
being unable to vote. “I find it incredibly frustrating that the elections process hasn’t been perfected yet, both as a voter and a candidate. I’ve only participated in three elections, but all of them have had problems,” he said in an e-mail. “I remember that the USC assured students that the voting system was fixed and ready for the 2014 elections. It doesn’t appear that that was true.” Brown logged in to vote, but received an error message and was unable to. He then contacted Geoffrey Pimlatt, senior manager of media and communications at the USC, who informed him that the registrar’s office had him documented as not taking any courses, so he was not on the list of exchange students and therefore not able to vote. Brown says they added him manually to the list, and was thereafter able to vote. Brown said that he contacted other exchange students, who also had difficulties voting.
Bill Wang GAZETTE
I CAN’T GET NO VOTER ACTION. Technical glitches prevented Science students from voting in the University Students’ Council elections yesterday. This is the third year in a row that there have been problems with the USC online voting system.
“It’s already difficult for exchange students to vote, given that we’re outside of the ‘Western Bubble,’ not exposed to as much of the campaigning and often have to deal with
[W]e’re still investigating what exactly happened and what are the best steps forward, but I promise you that if there has been any interference with the ballot the elections will be fair with those candidates affected. — Pat Whelan USC president
a time difference,” he said. Whelan confirmed that the issues surrounding exchange student votes had been resolved. “We just received their lists and they are now able to vote online,” Whelan said yesterday. The difficulties surrounding Science student votes, which apparently arose out of student categorization, had a candidate in the elections calling for a re-ballot. “The original problem with the ballot was that some students, in particular the upper year [bachelor of medical sciences] students, didn’t have the option to vote for their Science senator or councillor,” Ahmed Elboraie, a third-year pharmacology student and candidate in the elections, said. Elboraie said that he spoke with
other concerned candidates, speaking with the USC for some form of action to be taken. The USC assured that there would be a form of re-ballot starting at 8 p.m. yesterday for those who didn’t have an opportunity to vote. Anyone who was unable to vote for faculty council before may now cast their vote. He explained that the chief returning officer, Pashv Shah, said approximately 400 students were affected. According to Brown, Pimlatt said a similar number of exchange students were affected. Despite the damage control, at least one student is annoyed. “The same system can’t continue. The USC needs a new voting system that works flawlessly every time,” Brown said.
Health Sci prez candidate un-disqualified Aaron Zaltzman ASSOCIATE EDITOR The University Students’ Council elections started off with some excitement, as the elections committee reversed their decision on Health Science presidential candidate Fazi Toor roughly half a day after deciding to disqualify him from running. Toor was initially disqualified after a meeting of the elections committee late Monday night, on the grounds that he had withheld expenses that exceeded his campaign spending limit, a violation that results in an automatic
disqualification. “This was brought to our attention over the weekend, so we had a meeting on Sunday with Fazi, and asked him to address rumors that he was overspending,” said Pashv Shah, the chief returning officer. “He opened up about some expense, and we discussed one that was not necessarily claimed in his expense sheet.” “The following day we were presented with evidence that he had overspent by a substantial amount,” Shah continued. “We called him in […] and what the committee felt was that he had left out an important
part, and took it in the worst possible light, that he was hiding expenses.” However, Shah said the situation boiled down to “a misunderstanding of sections of the bylaw on behalf of the committee and the candidate himself.” Toor said the committee was mistaken about the nature of the expenses, which pertained to Facebook advertisements. “The Facebook advertising was definitely not funded by myself, and was not an expense from my pocket. It was rather a feature/benefit that was included within the wix.com website creation service, which I used to create my votefazi.
com website,” Toor explained. “In no way had I paid for Facebook advertising which resulted in me obviously not declaring the expense.” The committee eventually saw it the same way, and upon Toor’s appeal Tuesday afternoon the decision was reversed, although Toor did not escape scot-free. “We had come to a mutual agreement that a misevaluated decision was made in disqualifying me from the elections,” Toor explained. “Assigning demerit points was seen as being more appropriate.” “It was a violation, because he had overspent, but to a less serious
extent,” Shah explained. “It wasn’t done with the intent of gaining an unfair advantage.” Toor was not the only candidate to run into trouble with the elections committee over the weekend. Social Science presidential candidate Lisa Le Nguyen was assessed four demerit points for campaigning in residence on Sunday. Additionally, presidential candidate Matt Helfand was assessed three demerit points for unauthorized use of USC materials — in this case the council chambers — as well as an additional demerit points for having campaign material in an unauthorized area.