by Rivkela Brodsky
Daily Lobo
The results for the GPSA presidential election are still not official.
Members of the Student Bar Association filed an appeal on April 6, a day before the election ended.
Buckner Creel was unofficially re-elected GPSA president by 408 votes on April 7.
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According to the rules of GPSA, an election cannot be certified until any challenges to the election are resolved.
The appeal stated not all graduate students received notice of the election, because only students with CIRT net IDs are included on GPSA's e-mail list.
Other than advertising in the Daily Lobo, all official elections appointments were sent out on the GPSA e-mail list. But they were not disbursed to GPSA members who were not on the list, according to the appeal.
The appeal also states access to voting was not equal because only students with CIRT net IDs were allowed to vote online.
Michael Neill, president of the Student Bar Association, said the group protested the election because two-thirds of graduate students were excluded from notices and online voting.
"It's giving a privilege to one-third of the graduate students," he said.
He said students in math, engineering or law departments, among others, might not have a CIRT net ID.
The concern was brought up in the 2004 election, the first year online voting was used.
"It came to our attention that they knew about it last year and did nothing to remedy it," Neill said.
Debbie Morris, director of the Student Actitivies Center, said nothing was done to address the problem last year.
Pavan Madhira, chairman of the election committee, did not respond to calls or an e-mail Monday.
Online voting should not be an issue in the election, and it was not much of a problem in the 2004 election, he said in a Daily Lobo article on April 5.
He said enough efforts were made to let people know they needed to register for a CIRT net ID if they wanted to vote online.
Students who did not have a CIRT net ID had to register by the end of the day on April 1.
The only mention of the deadline was at the April 2 council meeting, according to the appeal.
The appeal also states online voting is more accessible because it has longer hours. Ballot boxes run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Online voting began at 8 a.m. on April 5 and ended at 4 p.m. on April 7.
Cyndi Sanchez, former president of the association, sent a letter dated March 25 to Madhira with concerns about online voting in the election, saying it provided unfair access to voting.
The concern was brought up at the April 2 GPSA Council meeting by Neill.
He said his concerns were not addressed.
According to the minutes of the meeting, a motion to eliminate online voting in the election failed.
Neill said the association is not looking to get a recount. All the group wants is a judgment on how fair online voting is.
The appeal is in the hands of the judiciary committee, which must make a decision by the next council meeting on May 7.
He said the appeal doesn't challenge the results of the election, and the committee is determining whether the election can be certified based on the appeal.
The election committee must wait for a ruling before it can certify the election.
Neill said if the judiciary committee rules online voting is acceptable, the Student Bar Association will appeal to the University Counsel Office.
