Despite confusion, TCU elections completed

After a day marked by technical glitches and an eventual disqualification of a candidate, the results of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) elections were released last night.

Most of the campus was only voting for seats on the TCU Judiciary (TCUJ), which had eight candidates running for seven positions. The Class of 2007 also had to choose between thirteen candidates for eleven TCU Senate seats.

The Committee on Student Life (CSL) and senate seats for the Class of 2005 and 2006 were uncontested.

The Elections Board (ELBO) released unofficial results last night.

Daniel Pateiro, Melissa Peters, Nicholas Boyd, Zeleka Yeraswork, Jake Reniscow, Shaharris Beh and Talisa Anderson won the seats on the Judiciary.

Zach Landau, Jessica Feinberg, Neil Padover, Adrienne Vannieuwenhuizen, Juan D. Escobar, Evan Lichtenstein, Brody Hale, Aaron Miller, Simon Sassenberg, Harish Perkari and Andrew Caplan were elected to the Senate.

Jonathan Chan, Jon Loof, Charles Bonello also failed to win Senate seats.

Sophomore Jordana Starr was disqualified from the race for violating ELBO bylaws regarding campaign e-mails. According to an ELBO press release sent last night, Starr violated the rules by sending messages to class e-mail lists obtained from online Blackboard lists.

According to ELBO, campaign e-mails may be addressed to heads of student organizations and must first be approved by ELBO.

The press released noted that "To her credit Ms. Starr had e-mailed ELBO Chair Abby Lillianfield asking to whom she could address her e-mails."

Lillianfeld reported that ELBO could not control mail of "personal correspondence" and that it was okay to safely e-mail "people you know."

The press release said the volume of e-mail meant that Starr moved beyond what was allowed under ELBO rules. "It was clear to ELBO by reading Ms. Starr's emails that she did not know all of the students to whom she addressed her emails and that the emails could not possibly be for personal correspondence."

Starr was contacted by the Daily after her disqualification, at approximately 1:30 a.m., but did not immediately return phone calls.

ELBO received several complaints from students yesterday who had received e-mails from Starr.

Sophomore Greg Katz received a message from Starr as a part of a mailing to a Yiddish culture class.

Katz said his first reaction to the mailing was confusion. "I thought it was unexpected. It was strange to receive an e-mail directed to a class from a candidate."

Freshmen senate candidate Adrienne Vannieuwenhuizen said she was taking no chances when it came to e-mail. Vannieuwenhuizen was disqualified in a mid-year election because she sent a message directly to an organization without first clearing it with ELBO.

Vannieuwenhuizen said that she believed there was a place for e-mailing in campaigning -- as long as it was legal -- since it allowed candidates to contact students and raise awareness about the election.

Because of her past experience, however, Vannieuwenhuizen did not send an e-mail about her senate race.

Disqualifications because of e-mail infractions are not new. Last year, current sophomore Diana Fox was forced to withdraw from the senate election because she e-mailed to groups without permission from ELBO.

A technical error also caused confusion among early voters. Some computers returned an error message when students tried to select a desired candidate.

Students who complained to ELBO received an e-mail explaining how to get around the message. "It was possible to press back on the browser and vote," ELBO member Nicholas Haslett said.

According to Haslett, the problem was caused by a server error in the Tufts system, and was fixed within a half hour.

Haslett said the problem did not impact the number of students who voted during the affected time period. "Voting has been going steady for the whole day," he said.

Approximately 17 percent of the student body voted.

More detailed figures will be released today, along with the final numbers for the election.