by Sarah Willson
The Student Government Association announced Monday morning via email to students and faculty that they will be postponing the spring 2018 Special Elections due to a “technical error.”
This was due to issues with Central Connecticut State University’s “Collegiate Link,” a tool that allows students to find and join on-campus organizations, as well as vote in SGA elections, according to SGA’s President Brendan Kruh.
This year’s special elections consist of 27 students, some first year, some full-time and some commuter, all competing for a slot as one of this semester’s future senators.
CCSU students are able to vote for candidates based on their eligibility. In other words, only first-year students can vote for first-year senators, just like only commuter students can vote for commuter senators.
The reason behind the sudden postponement of the SGA special elections was a problem regarding “The Link,” according to Kruh. Kruh described the issue as a “cross-error,” saying that an unknown reason resulted in all students having eligibility to vote for parties they should not have been eligible to vote for.
Kruh said this includes, but is not limited to, residential students being able to vote for commuter senators and at-large senators, which they should not have been able to do.
Some candidates were also put in the wrong voting category. Some first-year students, despite the fact that they were at a sophomore standing position, were put under the voting registrar as freshmen.
“This [who could vote for who] was all on the registrar,” Kruh said. “Their eligibility list which they [senators] provided Scott [Hazan] were, for a lack of better words, just blatantly incorrect.”
“I don’t know how this happened,” Kruh went on. “That’s why we’re left scratching our heads.”
Cindy Narine, a candidate running for an at-large senator position, expressed her disappointment, but said she was understanding of the situation.
“The postponement of the election comes as a surprise,” Narine said. “I must admit that it’s a little disheartening to receive. However, I applaud [the] SGA for stepping in and quickly taking appropriate actions to ensuring a fair and valid election. I have confidence in their abilities to resolve the issue.”
As of now, Kruh said that Scott Hazan, Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development (SALD), has contacted the Registrar’s Office and is currently trying to obtain lists to confirm which candidates are eligible to run under which title, such as commuter, at-large and residential.
“Our concern is that even if we get these lists, how can we confirm the validity of these lists?” Kruh said. “The only thing that I can think of is doing random spot checks.”
These checks would consist of Kruh himself going over the list of candidates and making sure the positions they are running for are accurate.
Kruh informed that all votes submitted by students during the 25-minute time slot were discarded, and the election will reset once the issue is resolved.
“The [voting] is hopefully going to reopen [Tuesday],” Kruh said. “The eligibility list will be checked today [Monday] when it gets here and we’re making a whole new election for The Link.”
As of Monday, Feb. 5, according to Hazan, the special elections will be back up and running by Tuesday, Feb. 6 at 10 a.m.