After a summer of deliberation, the University Council Representative Elections Committee has overturned April's election for the post of the student representative, due to complaint over the online election format and the election date. The election will be re-scheduled for this semester.
The election was called into question by candidate Brendan Keane, who complained to the elections committee after April's online elections were inadequately published and the date was misprinted in The Spectrum.
The re-election process is handled entirely by the students, said Barbara Ricotta, dean of students.
"It's up to the presidents of the seven student governments to coordinate an election process," she said. "They can do that by sitting themselves on an election committee, or they can appoint an elections committee."
Currently, the Council of Presidents - comprised of the presidents of each of the seven student governments - is finalizing a new set of rules for the election committee and hopes to reschedule the University Council election by the end of September, said Christian Oliver, Student Association president.
"We completely revamped the rules and regulations over the summer," said Oliver. "We now have to get every single president of all the student governments to sign off on an agreement."
When the committee did not respond in a timely manner to Keane's complaints, Oliver said the Student Wide Judiciary sent the elections committee a letter asking for a speedy decision.
"SWJ intervened, and said, 'You need to come up with an official stance on his complaint and give it to us, otherwise you're getting community service,'" said Oliver.
Trevor Torcello, chief justice of the SWJ, said the letter asked for a final resolution on the matter, so that the SWJ would know if further action was needed. He could not recall any mention of community service.
"(The letter) was basically, if I remember right, just saying that there was a clause in their rules that said that they had to hear a complaint and they had to reach a decision on it," Torcello said. "I don't think it was really ultimatum-ish."
"I think the way that I put it was, 'A delay will result in further activity from the court."
This marks the second UB election to be voided this year. The Graduate Student Association's online election results were overturned after allegations of voter fraud surfaced.
According to student complaints, person numbers were obtained and used to vote by persons other than their owners.
Oliver said he hopes the new University Council election will take place using the traditional paper ballot system, which he feels is the most accurate way of voting.
"I believe that as the GSA elections have proved online elections are not a safe and secure system," he said.
The winner of last year's online elections, David Vater Jr., has served as the interim University Council representative since April.
Neither Vater nor Keane could be reached to comment, despite repeated attempts.
The 10-person council, made up of nine appointed representatives who serve seven-year terms and one student representative who serves a one-year term, acts as an aide to the upper administration of the university.
The administration and council meet four times a year.
"The council basically serves as an advisory board to the president and the senior officers to the university," said Connie Holman, assistant to the president for university relations.
