SU Election overturned

[thich]

Quoted from Calgary Herald:
======================


U of C review board orders new student union election
Voting flaws in online system cited

Deborah Tetley
Calgary Herald


March 23, 2004


For the first time in nearly 10 years, the University of Calgary's undergraduate election has been deemed invalid -- a ruling some are calling "disastrous" for the student body and the immediate future of campus politics.

"This is devastating," said president-elect Bryan West. "I'm so surprised by the board's decision. We're like an organization without a head, and now this is going to affect a lot of people."

The review board's decision to overturn the student union election and order a new one was released Monday, following last week's hearing.

The hearing was granted following a request by failed presidential candidate Phil Barski only days after last month's election results were made official. Barski filed the petition on behalf of himself and his slate of 19 candidates.

He alleged several irregularities with the online voting -- including students receiving pre-selected ballots and not being able to log their vote -- and asked for an external audit.

At the hearing, and after receiving new evidence from the company that developed the voting software, he instead asked that the election be overturned.

Barski said the irregularities "affected the overall integrity of the election process and compromised the election result."

Sorex, the software company, initially said in a letter to the chief returning officer that the data was intact.

However, Barski's allegations got a bit of a boost when Sorex's director Marc Wrubleski conceded the potential for voter mix-up existed due to the large ballot size.

He testified that if a voter walked away from the polling station without completing his or her vote, another student could conceivably vote twice.

Wrubleski told the board it's impossible, due to the anonymous nature of the system, to know if this indeed happened.

In her written decision, chairwoman Arlene Blake said "uncontested evidence" supported the petitioner's claim that some students were unable to vote, and that the online voting system irregularities did "materially affect the result of the election" and violate bylaws. . . .

"The result of the election may have been different as a consequence of the irregularities," Blake said.

The decision means that all referendum questions also hang in the balance.

The executive's current president, Jayna Gilchrist, said a decision will be made public next Monday as to how the union plans to proceed.

It has the option of appealing to the student union tribunal, a judicial body.

"We're still figuring out how to respond," she said. "Either the decision will be appealed to the tribunal or plans for a new election will be put in place. We want to ensure that the electoral process is fair, and as with anything, we want to ensure that the best interest of students is kept at heart."

Those on both sides of the political fence say the board's decision has the potential to disrupt many students' lives for weeks, if not months.

If the tribunal upholds the board's decision, a new election might not take place until fall, Gilchrist said.

The current executive stays in power until a new mandate is decided.

"Cynicism in students is only going to grow now," West said. "We already went through a gruelling election and no one wants to do that again. So much is in jeopardy."

Barski said if there is a new election, he will push for a return to paper ballots.

"That said, we don't think the students should have to wait," he said. "We want a new election within the next three weeks. We want this dealt with swiftly and efficiently."

The last time the student union review board deemed an election invalid was in 1995. The tribunal overturned that decision within a month.

The software was created by Sorex and the students' union at a cost of $12,000 -- the price tag for the election was $20,000.

The tribunal meets April 15.

[KELSTAR]

has anyone heard Barski speak? At the beginning of lectures and stuff? He was in several of mine before the election was held and he didn't seem to be very "informed". I wonder fi he has a shot in a second election. Tons of people on campus seem to be fed up with him and thinks that the best man one!!

[Weapon_R]

Surprisingly, I think he'll take it. For the thousands of students who haven't heard him speak, yet have heard OF him, he is their only viable choice. He's received so much publicity in the past month that I think it will translate onto votes.

[KELSTAR]

Possibly. I am assuming that the other candidates won't really take any votes. I bet that their votes will turn in to votes for either West or Barksi.. Does anyone really think they will wait until next fall to fix this problem? I would hate to be in West's position right now!!

[Weapon_R]

They HAVE to wait until next fall. Here's why:

The review board has made it's decision to overturn the election. The SU is taking it to an appeal, called the Tribunal. If the tribunal upholds the Review Boards Decision, the SU would have to make plans to hold an election. Since the Tribunal is set to meet on April 7th, and their decision within 24-48 hours, and since an election takes a MINIMUM of two weeks, we would be well into our exams (ie - no classes). It would be stupid to do it then.

I feel badly for Bryan West, I know him well and he deserves the position. He will put up a good fight. What I fear, however, is that as it stands now, past Barski supporters will vote Barski again, while past West supporters will vote West. But there are the pluralist voters, those who a)don't care or b) didn't vote because they were uninformed. These pluralist voters are going to be more easily swayed towards voting for Barski, a common household name around the University, than they will be for voting West.

[AquamosH]

Though Barski does have a common household name around campus, most of what you hear about him and his cabinet is negative anyways, so imo I can't really see uninformed voters giving him the vote.

I also doubt this whole ordeal he's brought up will reflect positively on him, not only because of how much money it's going to cost the University, but it also just makes him out to be a "sore loser".

[KELSTAR]

That is exactly what I thought!!! But I do see others point. people may still vote for him if they really have not been listening to the comments and just recognize the name.

However... when Barski came into my classes to introduce himself he got HORRIBLE responses from many students. (this was before the election) He did not even know about Bill 43 or that it had anything to do with Tuition Inceases. A week later when he came into my next class he was asked about it and he still had yet to figure out what it was

[nosegrindR]

Originally posted by KELSTAR
That is exactly what I thought!!! But I do see others point. people may still vote for him if they really have not been listening to the comments and just recognize the name.

actually i think it will go the other way around. Many people i have spoken to are fed up with barski and his ways. Why does he have to stir up all this crap just cause he lost the first time. I mean yes, he made a good financial effort for renting a bus out, and getting T-Shirts for hot girls to wear, but that doesn't mean he really knows what he's doing, he's just got money to market himself.

[bookem]

Seems like Barski is out to try and prove that a marketing/management degree will get you elected rather than giving a shit about the student body. I'm a fourth year CPSC student, and I didn't see a single "Vote Barski" poster in my neck of the woods, he didn't come to any of my classes, no hot women, nothing. I could say the same for Bryan West, but i didn't vote for him either and he seems to be a gracious candidate, contrary to this Barski fucktard. The only reason I'd heard of Barski and his 'cabinet' is because I met the guy at Kinko's at 2am one unfortante evening. I can' understand why someone would put 19 people (rookies) into office at one time; it's good to have contrasting views in politics, that's how good things come about.

He lost the election, plain and simple. And who cares if people could have voted twice? They could have voted twice for Barski. To quote Dave Chappel, "I wish i had more hands, so i could give Barski 4 thumbs down!"

[7thgenvic]

Originally posted by djdante
Seems like Barski is out to try and prove that a marketing/management degree will get you elected rather than giving a shit about the student body.

its not just that! my god, the whole election was a joke, and barski is a really good guy, i would suggest trying to talk to him, i think its wicked that their going to give him another chance, its not his fault there was technical fucking errors that may have cost him his election, if he started bitching after he lost for a reason that has nothing to do with technicallity then sure, he lost, but loosing because of the voting system is valid for re-election!

[Weapon_R]

Voting more than once is in contravention of almost every election bylaw in every single country in the world.

The system was flawed - if anyone went to the review board, it would have been seriously evident that the software developers program was not correctly recording votes.

To not challenge the SU election would have been unfair to those who lost. Barski's team made a good representation at the review board hearing, even proving that a .54% error (less than one percent) would have caused several races to differ. A 1.64% difference would have changed the outcome of the presidential race - and for the record, I voted for West I just think that the winners and losers should win and lose fairly.

[EDM]

i wonder if there is a statistic of how many people actually vote.

the su having $5million to spend on whatever makes me ->

but eh, whatever

[Weapon_R]

Originally posted by EDM
i wonder if there is a statistic of how many people actually vote.

the su having $5million to spend on whatever makes me ->

but eh, whatever

28% of the eligible students voted this year.

SU has $10million dollar budget actually

[thich]

this year's vote was largest by far in the last how many ever years.

I voted for West b/c he seemed most capable.
if i have to I will vote him again.

I've had Barski in my classes b4 and something about him doesn't click with me...

[BebeAphrodite]

Goooo Barski!

[donz]

Barski has a bad rep from all the whole "shady" election thing. There is a problem with the election process, and because he pointed it out doesn't mean he is a sore loser. He's just the guy that got cheated.

Ohh Barski cabinet wants to implement more party days, how can you say no to that. The last few, and I mean 3 past SU cabinets I voted for all wanted to lower tuition, but I still pay more each year. SU is a joke, they can't really do anything big like slach tuition, what power do they really have. So why not have somebody that will book better bands for BSD, make the year a little more fun?

I bet you like 30% of students don't even know we have SU, and another 50% don't care.

[7thgenvic]

i think the SU is a joke, whens the last time they did something good for anyone but theirselves, all the SU is is people that get elected into these jobs only to benifit themselves, they could give a flying fuck about what the students want!

fuck them all,

[EDM]

Originally posted by 7thgenvic
i think the SU is a joke, whens the last time they did something good for anyone but theirselves, all the SU is is people that get elected into these jobs only to benifit themselves, they could give a flying fuck about what the students want!

fuck them all,

werd dude. The should be giving out more money to students.

thats why i dont vote

[Weapon_R]

How can you guys argue that the SU does not "do anything"?

Have you ever sat in MacHall? Ate lunch there? Watched a show or checked out the displays? Guess who owns/operate/funds that entire building.

Have you ever bought/sold a book at the used bookstore? Guess who owns that?

How about the Den/Black Lounge?

If the SU didn't tell you about the increases in Tuition, how would you know? Who would be the check and balance on the University?

Have any one of you ever used career services/safewalk/Student Legal Assistance? You can bet that the SU funds a majority of those programs.

Better yet, have any of you university members ever joined a club? The SU funds these clubs and sanctions them weekly.

It's a large operation, and they work hard to ensure that the students have the best experiences possible.

[nosegrindR]

Originally posted by 7thgenvic
its not his fault there was technical fucking errors that may have cost him his election, if he started bitching after he lost for a reason that has nothing to do with technicallity then sure, he lost, but loosing because of the voting system is valid for re-election!

This is HIS election? Who's to say that it was HIS election?? Did he assume he was going win?

And okay, let's assume he was bitching because the computers were down, or the software was down, wouldn't this mean that West and all the other candidates had down time during this time too? It's not like it was only Barski's votes that were fucked up, and you don't see other candidates complaining.

But don't get me wrong, I have no beef with Barski OR his cabinet, he is a good guy, but like djdante said, he didn't come down to the MS/ICT/CPSC area....come to think of it he probably hates software developers a lot now.