Freshman elections for the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate have been postponed 24 hours due to a technical glitch in Tufts Election Commissions' (ECOM) voting software. Students will still vote today on two separate proposals concerning reforms to the community representative system on the TCU Senate.
ECOM reported early this morning that the vote would be pushed back due to a problem with VoteNet, the online system used in campus elections.
This problem has occurred many times in the past, most recently during freshman elections two years ago, according to ECOM Chair Katherine McManus, a sophomore. She called the problem "out of ECOM's control."
While freshmen will not be able to elect their senators, the vote on community representative reform is unaffected. The ballot allows students to vote for one of two referenda, named Referendum 3 and Referendum 4, or to abstain from the question.
"We are encouraging everyone who can access the referenda to vote," McManus said.
The referenda vote is a revote from last semester's April elections. During that election, both referenda reached the participation threshold necessary to pass but could not be simultaneously adopted as they are competing proposals.
Tufts ECOM and the TCU Judiciary have determined that this vote is, in effect, a runoff between the two referenda, meaning that one of the two will pass and be implemented. While abstaining from the vote is an option, the Judiciary decided yesterday that voting against both referenda is not an option and abstentions will not count as rejections of both.
In the event of a majority abstention vote, the referendum with the higher total vote will be adopted.
Voting for freshman Senate seats will begin early Thursday morning at 12 midnight and will continue for 24 hours.
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