Repeat election
photo by Alex Smyth
Taking care of business: SFUO President Seamus Wolfe (left) and VP Social Alex Chaput at the Feb. 28 BOA meeting.
Irregular e-votes lead to by-election for BOA seats
ISSUES ARISING FROM online ballots cast in the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) elections Feb. 9–11 have resulted in a Board of Administration (BOA) decision to hold by-elections for several 2010–11 BOA positions. According to SFUO President Seamus Wolfe, the only races affected by the e-voting problems were the contested social sciences and engineering BOA seats.
“These irregularities have no effect on the outcomes of the executive races, referendums, [University of Ottawa] senate elections, or BOA races in the other faculties,” Wolfe explained shortly before election results were announced on Feb. 11.
In an announcement at the Feb. 28 BOA meeting, Wolfe revealed that complaints had been registered by social science students when they were denied entry into the e-voting system, which indicated that they had already cast their ballots.
“The elections committee was immediately contacted and started an investigation,” said Wolfe. “[We] determined that there were some irregular ballots cast—216, to be exact. All irregular ballots were cast from the same [IP] address, at an off-campus hotspot located in Ottawa.”
A “hotspot” is a location that provides an open Internet connection, often spanning a distance as large as several city blocks. Wolfe indicated the “irregular” votes were registered at one-minute intervals and suggested that the most likely explanation for them was an individual who used software that could discover student PINs by running through all the possible combinations of letters and numbers until the right combination was discovered.
E-voting made its return to SFUO elections after last year’s chief information officer, Wassim Garzouzi, lobbied the BOA for the inclusion of online polls in the 2009 elections. Garzouzi explained he communicated often with Everyone Counts throughout the setup of the system last year—the e-voting company that has managed the SFUO elections for the past two years—and said it would be impossible for anyone to run such software due to the company’s policy of registering every failed voter login.
“As a result of the election committee’s refusal to disclose the communications between the e-voting company and the SFUO, it is impossible for me to give a proper assessment on the cause of these allegations,” Garzouzi said in an email to the Fulcrum. “I have every reason to believe that if a problem has in fact occurred, it was most likely due to the SFUO’s incompetence and more specifically, to the dishonest behaviour of its elected officials and not that of anyone else.”
Wolfe explained that the SFUO has been in contact with Everyone Counts for the investigation but has not raised any issues with the system. Everyone Counts was not available for comment at press time.
The by-elections will fill the six positions available for social sciences directors and the single seat for engineering. Due to an insufficient number of candidates in other BOA races this year, by-elections will also be held to fill the vacancies for the remaining medicine, management, and science seats on the board.
“[Everyone Counts has] offered to have the by-election, if we would like, to be done for free,” said Wolfe, who further indicated that the SFUO would not be taking them up on the offer. Instead, Wolfe explained, by-election votes will be cast using paper ballots to avoid technical difficulties. It is unknown at this point whether all future SFUO elections will be conducted with paper ballots.
The elections committee as a whole will assume the role of chief electoral officer (CEO), a continuation of the SFUO elections setup after the Feb. 3 resignation of former CEO Julien de Bellefeuille.
Eric Eryou, an original BOA social sciences candidate who will be re-running in the by-election, feels that the by-election is unfortunate.
“I don’t want to re-campaign,” he said. “I spent a lot of time on the first campaign. It seems a bit ridiculous having to do it again.”
Other candidates have decided not to run in the upcoming by-election, including Peter Flynn, a current BOA social sciences director who ran for re-election in February and noted his disappointment with the student governing system.
“I just feel as if the system itself is not responsive to growth and compromise,” Flynn said via email. “I wish the candidates running in the by-election the best of luck, and hopefully, they will be able to succeed where I have been unable to achieve change.”
While the elections committee’s recommendations did ultimately pass at the Feb. 28 BOA meeting, not all directors supported the by-election proposal because it could open the door for new candidates. BOA social sciences director Kyle Simunovic thought it unfair that new candidates would have the opportunity to run.
“I think we need an election—it’s the responsible thing to do,” said Simunovic. “It’s unfortunate that we’re opening it again. I think that there were a lot of candidates who ran really good races, … and now they’ll have to work twice as hard.”
Fellow BOA social sciences director Aminka Belvitt explained that candidates should see the by-election as a positive for their campaigns.
“One director, Simunovic, was [debating] the fact that it’s unfair. ... I do recognize [Simunovic’s point of view]; however, the decision that the BOA made was not to make a candidate’s campaign easier or harder,” said Belvitt. “I really encourage candidates to see this as a second chance, to fix what didn’t go right in their previous campaign.”
The nomination period for the BOA seats started on March 1 and will end on March 5. Campaigns will begin March 14, and voting will take place on March 23 and 24.
“We’re trying to fill the timelines that are in the [SFUO] constitution, and ensure that there are nine possible days for appeal,” said Wolfe. “Between March 24 and the next BOA meeting, [there are] 10 days until our last board meeting of the year. It’s essential that we ratify [our directors] by then.”
For more information about voting and the by-elections, visit elections.sfuo.ca.
