VSA fall elections conclude, results delayed

Shahreen Saifie Guest Writer

At 8 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 25, students began voting on-line for their choice candidates for the fall Vassar Student Association (VSA) elections. After the 24-hour period for casting ballots ended, the VSA was supposed to announce the winners at a results party at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 26; however, the results had not yet been tabulated by that time, and the small number of hopefuls who showed up for the party departed for the night.

VSA President Abel McDonnell ’07 notified the campus via e-mail on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 27 that the results were posted on the VSA elections website, after a delay of more than eight hours. The elections determined freshmen VSA leadership positions, freshmen house representatives, spots on campus committees, as well as various positions for upperclassmen that had been left open after spring VSA elections last semester.

The VSA and Board of Elections used new software for the fall elections. Though the elections ran more smoothly than in the past, they were not without mishaps. Some students who voted during the first hour of the voting period had incomplete ballots and were unable to vote for dorm representatives. In an e-mail from the Board of Elections, students were advised to vote again, and only their most recent ballot would count.

After the voting period ended, the software took longer than expected to tabulate the results. The VSA allotted two hours for this process, after which it would announce the winners at the 10 p.m. results party. The VSA Executive Board pushed back the announcement during the party, initially estimating a delay of less than an hour. Finally, the few candidates who showed up were told that the results would not be ready that evening.

Winners were notified with the rest of the campus, via an all-campus e-mail from McDonnell sent at
10:13 a.m. on Wednesday which said that election results were posted.

Nate Silver ’10 was elected as the Class of 2010 president. “It’s a testament to the Class of 2010 the number of people who ran for President,” said Silver, adding that he was passionate about Vassar and glad to have been in the race. 12 freshmen ran for the position.

As a goal for the year, Silver said, “I want to break down how the Class of 2010 is separated into dorms and try to bring us together as a cohesive body.”

Other winners included Caitlin Ly ‘10 for Class of 2010 Vice President, Liza Darwin ‘10 for 2010 Secretary and Rachel Gilmer ’10 for 2010 Treasurer.

VSA Vice President, Lilian Ho ’07 said, “All the students are very excited about the position they’ve been elected to.”

McDonnell added, “It’s an important year. I’m glad so many people showed up.”

Over the summer, the VSA and the Board of Elections purchased new elections software because the old software, written a decade ago by Vassar students, was “prone to bugs and glitches,” according to Morse. The VSA Web server was also moved to Computer Information Services (CIS) for protective measures, in light of a hacking incident in December 2005.
At the Sept. 24 VSA Council meeting, McDonnell said the Board of Elections was “confident” the new software would work in time for the fall elections, despite it having been tested with only one user. As of Sept. 24, the new software had not been tested with multiple users.

In the past, the VSA elections have been prone to a variety of misfortunes. For the spring 2006 elections, the elections software was determined to not be secure for students to register their identification to vote. This last minute decision led to VSA using paper ballots in lieu of on-line ballots. In the fall 2005 elections, a candidate who dropped out of his race changed his mind and was reinstated on the ballot after voting had already begun. Voting was reset, and the announcement of the winners was subsequently delayed.

At the Sunday, Oct. 1 VSA Council meeting, Morse motioned to officially certify the fall 2006 VSA election results. This motion passed unanimously.