The Nevada Sagebrush

The student government election commission violated 13 laws in the election code, raising questions from some candidates and senators about the legitimacy of last week’s election.

Amid the numerous violations – ranging from the elections commission not locking ballot boxes to printing flawed voters’ guides – are allegations from some students and candidates that the election might have had a different outcome had there been no violations.

“Any potential voter could have standing to file a case (with the judicial council),”Sen. Sean McDonald said. “The elections in Iraq under Saddam Hussein were more fair than in ASUN. Florida during the 2000 presidential election? Child’s play compared to this.”

At the center of controversy are the presidential and College of Liberal Arts senate races, which were decided on tight margins.

As of Monday, only Sen. Taylor Robert Anderson, who lost his second bid for College of Liberal Arts senator by six votes, filed grievances with the judicial council.

PRESIDENTIAL PROBLEMS

Director of Programming Eli Reilly beat Sen. Carmen Gilbert by 11 votes in the presidential race. And while 23 voters selected “none of the above”for president on their ballots, they weren’t supposed to have that option for the executive races, according to the election code.

The problem: Some argue neither candidate won the race.

If the “none of the above”votes are counted as part of the total votes, neither candidate received more than half of the vote. Under that scenario, Reilly received 49.5 percent of the vote. Gilbert had 48.8 percent.

According to the ASUN constitution, the president has to be elected by a “majority of the students voting in the election.”Webster’s Dictionary defines majority as “more than half of a total.”

Reilly said he interprets majority to mean the most votes.

Gilbert disagrees.

“If you count the ‘none of the above’ votes, neither of us received the majority vote according to the constitution and nobody won,”Gilbert said.

Gilbert said she thinks the judicial council needs to look at case, but won’t file a charge because it would make her look like a sore loser.

Christine Lemon, president of Nye Hall Council, said she’s planning on filing a charge about the elections because the constitution was violated. She said she knows Gilbert because she is a Resident Assistant in Nye, but they don’t socialize. Lemon hadn’t filed anything as of Monday.

Election commission chair Nicole Nelson said she knew the senate’s intent with the code was to keep “none of the above”off the ballot. But she knowingly added it anyway. She said she didn’t want to make voters choose a candidate. She also said she thought WebCT, the system used for voting, couldn’t leave answers blank, so she added “none of the above.”

THE TAYLOR ANDERSONS

Taylor Robert Anderson filed a charge against the election commission Sunday because they ignored a judicial council order.

The controversy stemmed from a charge filed the week before the election by Taylor Douglas Anderson’s campaign manager, Tim Taycher. Taylor D. Anderson said bolding incumbent Taylor R. Anderson’s name and placing it first was unfair.

The judicial council heard the case March 10 and said middle initials and listing the candidates in alphabetical order on the ballot was enough to tell the Andersons apart.

Nelson said she misunderstood the council’s decision and put “incumbent”next to Taylor R. Anderson’s name.

“It was a mistake by the commission and it needs to be addressed,”Taylor R. Anderson said.

Taylor R. Anderson said the judicial council needs to review the election to determine if a new one needs to happen. At the very least, he said the election commission needs to be held accountable for disregarding the judicial council’s order.

Taylor R. Anderson said if there were a new election he wouldn’t run because he doesn’t want to deny any senator their seat.

VOTERS’ GUIDE VIOLATIONS

The first 200 copies of the voters’ guide were printed with Taylor R.  Anderson’s (the incumbent) bio under both Taylor Andersons’ names. The commission re-printed the guides the night before the election.

Middle initials weren’t used for the Andersons in the voters’ guide, but they were on the ballot. Taylor R. Anderson was first in the guide, but second on the ballot.

Nelson said middle initials were not in the guide because it had already been printed when the judicial council made its decision to use middle initials.

Six days before the election, the ASUN senate approved a ballot question asking students if they wanted to raise senators’ pay. Nelson said the short notice made it hard for her to finish the voters’ guide.

The guide didn’t include information about ASUN, voting procedures, accurate candidate information or senator and executive officer duties.

“We were trying to limit the pages as much as possible,”Nelson said.

Thirteen candidates did not have their bios printed because Nelson said she didn’t receive them while two of the candidates told Nelson they submitted their bios.

Nelson said she double-checked her e-mails and did not have them. She said she told the senators to forward her the e-mail they had originally sent, but they didn’t.

OTHER BALLOT PROBLEMS

The ballot boxes at Getchell Library were not locked for about two hours on Wednesday morning because the commission did not have access to the locks, Nelson said. She said they were never unsupervised.

Nelson said the commission didn’t make absentee ballots for the general election because the senate didn’t approve one of the ballot questions until six days before the election. Absentee ballots were available for the primaries and no students used them.

Violations

The election code is at asun.unr.edu under the elections tab.
1. “None of the above”was a choice on the executive officer ballot, but it wasn’t supposed to be. Now students and candidates are questioning whether a candidate actually won the presidency. If “none of the above”votes are added as part of the total, neither presidential candidate received more than half of the votes.
2. The commission did not follow the March 10 judicial council ruling to take “incumbent”off the ballot next to Taylor R. Anderson’s name.
3. The voters’ guide didn’t use middle initials for the Taylor Andersons and placed the two out of order. Taylor R. Anderson was first in the guide, but second on the ballot.
4. The voters’ guide did not include information about ASUN.
5. The voters’ guide did not include voting procedures.
6. The voters’ guide did not include the duties of senators or executives.
7. Ballot boxes were not locked for about two hours.
8. Absentee ballots were not available.
9. The Davidson Academy students could not vote.
10. The commission did not officially vote when making decisions about polling locations and other items of business.
11. The election commission chair published the voters’ guide, but it was the publicity coordinator’s mandated job.
12. Recycling bins were not available.
13. The commission did not respect the election code because the commission violated the above laws.

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