Congratulations mingled with criticisms at Wednesday evening's Graduate Student Association Senate meeting. The winners were announced at the meeting amidst student dissatisfaction with the decision to hold the elections online.
"I think that I was following the voice of the senators and of the graduate students. That is why I pushed for the idea," said current GSA President Janine Santiago, defending online voting. "It was an idea that we had discussed within the past four years. The online process is easy, and it is very secure."
The election results produced a mixed ticket executive board, with the Progress Party's Miguel Chacon capturing the presidency, independent Shiju David winning the vice presidency and the Change Party's Sanjeev Saha securing the position of treasurer.
Despite the increased voter turnout for this year's elections - 1,060 votes tallied - students at the senate meeting expressed concern over the security of the system used to collect the votes. Chris Meimming, a graduate student in physics, was one such dissenter.
"I don't think it was a valid election," he said. "The elections committee disregarded decisions made by the senate over the security concerns."
The online system required either the voter's UB person number or resident ID number to enter the Web site and cast a vote. Part of the concern centered on the lack of a password because, some students argued, person numbers are easily obtainable.
Meimming and others pointed out that it could be as easy as simply copying a number from the lists posted on the classroom walls by professors.
Sandra Connelly, secretary of the elections committee, said that by university policy, professors are only supposed to post the last four digits of a student's person number. If a professor posts the entire number, she said, he or she is in violation of university policy.
"Is there any fair election in the world? Let's not have our own version of the Florida elections," one student called from the audience.
LaDona Knigge, Change Party candidate for president, said, "I was surprised that it was not password protected. There was potential that it could be abused. The integrity of the election could be compromised."
If students are concerned that the votes were tampered with or object to the way the election was conducted, Connelly told the audience, they should take their concerns to the Student Wide Judiciary.
Omar Qadeer, vice presidential candidate for the Change Party, called the election a "learning experience."
"There are so many errors with the development of the voting Web site. It hasn't been organized well," Qadeer said. "The elections committee will now know what to do and what not to do."
The victors, however, defended the election process.
"It was a fair election," said Chacon. "I now have a bigger responsibility to all members. I will try to keep all my promises and make the GSA a success."
"It was more or less fair. You can never have a 100-percent fair election," said Saha.
David acknowledge possible deficiencies but believes the election is nonetheless legitimate. "It shouldn't have been a major issue. This is the first time that we tried this and we are going to improve upon it and make it foolproof."
Connelly said GSA's Web-based elections are here to stay.
"We are going to continue with this next year," she said. "Look at the voter turnout - when we go from a vote count of 68, last year, to over a 1,060 this year, I am willing to put up with all this."
