Princeton senate discovers voting errors in elections
Omar Carrillo; The Daily Princetonian, Princeton
Issue date: 5/28/09 Section: National College News
Class of 2012 senator Becca Lee will vacate her seat after it was discovered that hundreds of votes were disregarded in last December's election because of a software glitch, USG president Connor Diemand-Yauman '10 announced in an e-mail to the freshman class sent at 1:18 a.m. on Sunday.
While the original results indicated that Lee and Julie Chang '12 received the most votes, a USG audit found that Chang and USG information technology (IT) chair Michael Yaroshefsky '12 were the race's actual winners after accounting for the votes that were initially disregarded.
"As Yaroshefsky was technically the highest vote getter, he was told that he could assume the role of senator if he so chooses," Diemand-Yauman said in the e-mail. "Yaroshefsky, however, preferred to continue serving in the capacity of IT Chair. Consequently, Becca Lee's 2012 senatorial seat is now technically vacant."
Yaroshefsky said in an e-mail that, though he was "excited" to learn the actual outcome of last December's election, he was also "disappointed that something as serious as this [glitch] could have slipped by."
"The USG's uphill battle to gain credibility surrounding elections just got steeper," he said, adding that he chose to stay in his position as IT chair because "technology is critical to the daily operation of the USG."
"Serving as IT Chair is always fast-paced and exciting," he explained. "I believe I can affect the most positive change for the University by continuing to serve as IT Chair."
After finding errors in the results of a survey in this spring's USG ballot gauging student opinion of the University administration, USG officials conducted an audit of all elections dating back to 2002.
"The recent failures of the elections program in recent elections have brought to light many vulnerabilities in the system," Diemand-Yauman explained. "To ensure that similar problems did not arise in elections of previous administrations, we began to audit past elections."
While the original results indicated that Lee and Julie Chang '12 received the most votes, a USG audit found that Chang and USG information technology (IT) chair Michael Yaroshefsky '12 were the race's actual winners after accounting for the votes that were initially disregarded.
"As Yaroshefsky was technically the highest vote getter, he was told that he could assume the role of senator if he so chooses," Diemand-Yauman said in the e-mail. "Yaroshefsky, however, preferred to continue serving in the capacity of IT Chair. Consequently, Becca Lee's 2012 senatorial seat is now technically vacant."
Yaroshefsky said in an e-mail that, though he was "excited" to learn the actual outcome of last December's election, he was also "disappointed that something as serious as this [glitch] could have slipped by."
"The USG's uphill battle to gain credibility surrounding elections just got steeper," he said, adding that he chose to stay in his position as IT chair because "technology is critical to the daily operation of the USG."
"Serving as IT Chair is always fast-paced and exciting," he explained. "I believe I can affect the most positive change for the University by continuing to serve as IT Chair."
After finding errors in the results of a survey in this spring's USG ballot gauging student opinion of the University administration, USG officials conducted an audit of all elections dating back to 2002.
"The recent failures of the elections program in recent elections have brought to light many vulnerabilities in the system," Diemand-Yauman explained. "To ensure that similar problems did not arise in elections of previous administrations, we began to audit past elections."
Be the first to comment on this story