The results of the Associated Students of Pomona College Senate elections have been finalized. After a somewhat extended election process, the new senators are Freshman Class Representative Nate Fisher, Sophomore Class Representative Jamal Qazi, Junior Class Representative Garret Miller, South Campus Representative Michio Brunner ‘02, Off-Campus Representative Omayra Ortega ‘01, North Campus Representative Robi Ganguly ‘00.

The votes were tallied Monday, after the runoffs were held. Only two races, Off-Campus Representative and Junior Class Representative, were decided on the first day of voting. No one candidate received a majority of the votes in any other race, so runoff elections were called.

A controversy surrounding one of the elections, that for North Campus Representative, arose after the initial polling that took place last Tuesday. On Tuesday evening, after the votes had been tallied, one contestant in the four-way race for North Campus Representative charged that another candidate had violated the election codes set forth by the ASPC.

Brendan Walsh ’00 alleged that Robi Ganguly ’00 had failed to remove his campaign advertisements at least one hour before voting began, as the rules require. Dan Silberstein ’00, who is currently Sports Commissioner, is also serving as Elections Commissioner after being appointed by the Senate to this duty. After receiving the protest from Walsh, Silberstein decided to call another election on Thursday including all four candidates. The results of the second election were the same as the first. Ganguly and Jon Vanasco ’00 received the highest number of votes, though neither of them received a majority.

The Election Code has been the reason for several contested elections in recent years. Vanasco recalls "three elections contested within the last two years." The guidelines, particularly the one at issue here, are fairly ambiguous. The code states that, "There shall be no campaign materials on display and no campaigning within ordinary sight of the polling sites after the campaign period has ended. Each candidate must remove all campaign materials by the end of the campaign period." The fact that the forbidden area of the polling sites is specified makes it unclear whether the second sentence is simply clarification, or if it is extending the no-campaigning zone to include the entire campus.

According to Ganguly, he had no campaign materials within sight of the dining halls on election day. He states that the rules are "very ambiguous," and that he plans to clear up the relevant portions of the election code. Walsh did not return phone calls attempting to obtain his version of events.

Silberstein, who served on the Senate last year, agrees that, "there are lots of rules in the guidelines that shouldn’t be there." One of the first issues on the new Senate’s agenda is to reword the code in order to clarify it. According to Vanasco, there need to be stricter penalties for violating the guidelines. As the system stands, there is little incentive for candidates to follow the guidelines, since a violation will merely result in a new election being called. Vanasco also charges that many candidates ignored the spending limits set up by the code.

Now that the results of the elections are finalized, the Senate is able to meet with all of the new members. Many new senators have plans that they are working to get implemented. He believes that students should be able to obtain their academic records via the Internet. He is also pushing to get more trashcans put on campus. According to Qazi, he "has other plans, but wants to keep them a secret."

While the entire campus waits in anticipation, Ganguly is planning to set up Friday afternoon socials on Walker Beach. He is also trying to get more furniture for Walker Lounge and possibly a pool or Ping-Pong table.

The new Senate met for the first time Monday night. They did not address the issue of the election code, but according to Ganguly and Silberstein, they plan to do so at the next meeting.