We Be Jamming At the Wash Photo by Ben Mirus Students enjoyed a free, CCLA Live Music-sponsored reggae concert in the Wash last Saturday afternoon. The legendary Justin Hinds and the Dominoes played with special guest Kindread. They are are known as one of the founders of ska and rocksteady music.

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In the wake of last week’s elections, complaints have been lodged in the Senate as students, unhappy with this year’s polling, voiced their opinions. Candidate’s complaints ranged from minor offenses to some demands for a total revamping of the polling system.

"[People noticed] that propaganda was inside the voting area," said Elections Committee Chair Sophia Lee ’02. There was also some minor vandalism, but none was deemed serious enough by the Elections Committee to warrant disqualification of any candidate.

The most serious complaint, however, yet to be confirmed, was that students were approached while voting, by people pushing for Vice President-elect Putnam Shin ’00.

Shin, however, was not connected with the campaigning at Frary last Thursday.

"From what I’ve heard, people were saying during lunch in Frary ‘Don’t vote for Jon Vanasco, he’s anti-frat,’" said Shin’s competitor Jon Vanasco ’00. "I got emails from members from almost every fraternity claiming that I was anti-frat." Vanasco had signed a letter distributed to all on-campus mailboxes advocating a discussion of recent fraternity practices during campaign week. His election speech also claimed that fraternities "tend to look the other way at other fraternities’ actions," a comment apparently referring to recent issues with allegations against Phi Delta fraternity.

The election rules state that all campaigning must halt an hour prior to voting. "There shall be no campaign materials on display and no campaigning within ordinary sight of the polling sites after the campaign period has ended," Section IV of the ASPC Elections Code states. However, there is no rule stating that other students not connected to the candidates may not voice their opinions. The rules are vague in defining what, exactly, "campaign materials" are, and if only written materials would be in violation.

"It wasn’t the candidate’s fault," said ASPC President Andrew Sheppard ’99 when notified of the allegations about the controversial Vice President vote. "If people were stating there was strong-arming at the ballot boxes, that’s not a good thing. If they were standing there, that’s the responsibility of the people working the ballot boxes to get them out of there," Sheppard said.

Technically, the ASPC and Elections Committee, according to Sheppard, isn’t required to take any action. "I’m going to look into it, though," said Sheppard.

"Some people were given a call [by the Elections Committee] and asked if they were aware [of what their friends had been doing]," claims Robi Ganguly ’00, one of last week’s ASPC Presidential candidates.

Vanasco is not interested in pursuing charges or calling for a recount. "If I could have changed something about the way the elections went, I would have pointed out that people in every race went over the $10 spending limit and not counting their OIT printing quotas," he said. "It’s not specifically against the rules, but it seems to be a loophole."

Senate has decided not to punish any campaigners who broke various rules, such as the one Vanasco referred to.

"It was not decided to punish any campaigner because there was not enough evidence, [and] they were mistakes anyone could make," said Lee. However, Lee reports not knowing about the allegations made about the Vice Presidential vote.

According to Lee, elections went smoothly, with only minor, presumably unintentional, infractions made by some candidates. Students, however, disagree with the decision. "If a lot of people violate the rules then a lot of people should be punished," Ganguly said.

Another problem encountered was the closing of a ballot box at Frank. When the student in charge of the ballot box ran out of ballots, the student closed the voting facility half an hour before its lunch period ended. According to Sheppard, this was deemed not serious enough to call for a revote because there was still time to vote at dinner.

"Although I recognize that this was a bad thing, had it happened at dinner, this would have been grounds for a revote," he said.

But some candidates believe that the problems with the current election system reach much deeper than minor guideline transgressions. Ben Hoyt ’00, another candidate for ASPC President, believes that the flaws in the system "probably did not impact the outcome of the elections. "However, I think that they stand to have potential impact on the outcome of future elections and we have a responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen."

Hoyt has called for major changes to the current system, including proposing hiring a private polling company to conduct elections, which would reduce the potential for fraud. "There is a big potential for fraud and error," said Hoyt. He has also called for a greater transparency in the process, including the publication of election result and names of the students responsible for counting the votes. Candidates are told the election results but these are not published to prevent humiliation of candidates who lose by a large margin.

Ganguly agreed with Hoyt, saying that the process of vote counting is "sketchy." Votes for Senate positions are counted by current Senate members, creating what Ganguly believes to be a conflict of interest. However, deans are present, including Associate Dean of Students Neil Gerard, at the vote counting.

"Many people put a lot of time and energy into this and by not punishing offenders, people who are honest and listen to rules are penalized," said Ganguly.

Sheppard recognized the validity of the ideas, stating that the idea of hiring an outside polling body may be considered if financially feasible. However, Sheppard disagrees that publishing vote counts would be appropriate. "I don’t think it’s fair because at a small school like this candidates put a lot on the line by running for office. Publishing votes may be too hard a blow for candidates, emotionally or socially."

In this week’s Letter to the Editor (page 11), Sheppard, on behalf of the Senate, apologized for their manner of handling this campaign. Changes made to the Elections Code, according to this letter, were intended to rectify past problems but "the net impact was clearly negative."