The Traveler

Issue date: 9/10/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Stefan Trim Fulbright College senior Michelle Reynolds casts her vote in the 2009 Associated Student Government senate elections.

Elections for Associated Student Government senators will be over 4 p.m. tomorrow, but a gaffe has been reported in the graduate and law school elections, a graduate student running for office said.

Next week, the elections for the graduate and law schools will be re-done because of a glitch that prevented graduate students from voting online, said Patrick Monroney, the director of the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement.

Voting for the graduate and law schools will begin 9 a.m. next Monday and will end 4 p.m. Tuesday, Monroney said. Though this time period is shorter than the initial election ts still fulfills the time period requirement as set out by ASG regulations, he said.

The glitch was fixed yesterday afternoon by 2 p.m., Monroney said.

Online voting is the primary option for every student, but graduate students have had to use a paper ballot because of the UA IT glitch, said Rosa Edwards, CLCE office manager.

The voting Web site and ISIS didn't connect correctly, so the system was unable to recognize if a student was in the graduate school, Edwards said.

Students who are unable to vote online have the option of voting on the sixth floor of the Arkansas Union or going to a table set up by ASG students outside of the Union, she said.

At a required senator orientation last Friday, candidates for the law and graduate schools were told that some graduate students have had problems voting online in the past because of computer issues.

In addition, candidates of the law and graduate schools were told that 10 spots were open and only ten candidates had applied on time, said Robert Sloan Scroggin, a candidate for the graduate and law school elections. Because of a lack of competition candidates only needed one vote to win a senatorial spot.

However, Scroggin was later told that 12 names were listed instead of the 10, as the candidates were informed. Once he found out there were 12 names on the ballot he said he thinks he was put at a disadvantage again because other students had campaigned while he didn't because he was under the impression that there was no competition.

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