According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Jessica Lajambe, over 500 students who voted last Tuesday morning will have to cast their votes again, as their votes will not count.
Those who voted during this time will have to vote again because Lajambe disqualified the Representative Union (RU) the night before the election, only to requalify the slate 12 hours later.
This confusion led to voter irregularity, where at the Sir George Williams campus the RU slate was not scratched off and another slate that pulled out was not scratched off either. At Loyola the RU slate was scratched off, but the Left Opposition was still on the ballot.
Lajambe disqualified the RU because of allegations of bribery and she later requalified the slate after she received a lawyer’s letter from the RU’s lawyer.
After the confusion, Lajambe met with members of each slate to discuss what to do with the ballots and they decided to extend the voting period for those who voted on Tuesday morning.
“We sealed the boxes with the votes that were cast on Nov. 27,” Lajambe said.
The CEO added that by the evening of Nov. 27 a list was complied of the 500 or so electors who voted. By Dec. 2 all the 500 or so electors were notified by phone that they could cast their vote again.
A special polling station is located only at the SGW campus in front the CSU offices on the sixth floor of the Hall Building.
Voting for those who voted last Tuesday started on Nov. 29 and will continue until Dec. 5.
Luis Diaz, presidential candidate for New Organized Way, does not feel that the recasting votes of the 400 students will alter voter turnout significantly. “If they were going to vote they still will, and if they didn’t care before, now they’re just turned off.”
On Nov. 29 the university sent out a press release stating that the administration was concerned about the irregularities in the electoral process.
Those who voted during this time will have to vote again because Lajambe disqualified the Representative Union (RU) the night before the election, only to requalify the slate 12 hours later.
This confusion led to voter irregularity, where at the Sir George Williams campus the RU slate was not scratched off and another slate that pulled out was not scratched off either. At Loyola the RU slate was scratched off, but the Left Opposition was still on the ballot.
Lajambe disqualified the RU because of allegations of bribery and she later requalified the slate after she received a lawyer’s letter from the RU’s lawyer.
After the confusion, Lajambe met with members of each slate to discuss what to do with the ballots and they decided to extend the voting period for those who voted on Tuesday morning.
“We sealed the boxes with the votes that were cast on Nov. 27,” Lajambe said.
The CEO added that by the evening of Nov. 27 a list was complied of the 500 or so electors who voted. By Dec. 2 all the 500 or so electors were notified by phone that they could cast their vote again.
A special polling station is located only at the SGW campus in front the CSU offices on the sixth floor of the Hall Building.
Voting for those who voted last Tuesday started on Nov. 29 and will continue until Dec. 5.
Luis Diaz, presidential candidate for New Organized Way, does not feel that the recasting votes of the 400 students will alter voter turnout significantly. “If they were going to vote they still will, and if they didn’t care before, now they’re just turned off.”
On Nov. 29 the university sent out a press release stating that the administration was concerned about the irregularities in the electoral process.