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A
Joke of an
Election
/ /
■ OUR OPINION: Countless errors
by the Election Board made this
year’s election a display of
incompetence
The Primary Election this year
was a farce. It was a joke. In
the words of executive candi
date Ryan Ositis, it was a “cat
aclysmic failure.” Candidates broke
and ignored rules. Students and can
didates fded complaints that were
never forwarded to the Constitution
Court. The only upside remains that
the Elections Board members who
were around for the elections worked
their asses off in an attempt to have an
election. In short, almost everything
that could have gone wrong with the
election, did.
Rule Violations
Election rule complaints were filed
against Bill Miner and Ben Unger,
claiming that their posters were all
over town in both illegal places and
quantities.
Instead of forwarding those com
plaints to the Constitution Court,
which is the course of action the
ASUO Constitution spells out, the
Elections Board decided to take action
on its own.
That was not their decision to make.
It is the responsibility of the Constitu
tion Court to decide if the candidates
should be fined or even disqualified.
As we understand it, the Elections
Board does not have the authority to
make those decisions. The Elections
Board disagrees. Maggie Veatch, Voter
Education Coordinator, said there are
two conflicting rules about what to do
with complaints, and the Elections
Board erred on the side of taking action
themselves.
Ironically, the Elections Board
claimed a lack of authority and re
sources as the reasons why they could
n’t disqualify the Miner/Unger ticket.
In the end, Miner and Unger were
fined five dollars. At $2.50 per person,
that doesn’t amount to much of a
penalty.
Low Voter Turnout
Before the elections, the Elections
Board set a goal for 20 percent of the
students to vote in the election. The fi
nal turnout came embarrassingly short
at a pathetic eight percent. While there
are multiple reasons turnout was low,
the fact that there were only five places
on campus to vote didn’t help.
Three of the voting booths were in
doors in low-traffic areas such as the
law school. In addition, the computer
verification plan didn’t materialize un
til the end of the election. The two out
side booths on campus were often
backed up with potential voters, dis
couraging other students from voting.
Computer Problems
Earlier this year, ASUO Elections
Coordinator Stacey Harding and the
ASUO’s computer support person,
Ryan Ositis, went before the Student
Senate to ask for money to implement
a computer verification system. The
system would allow students to run
their student ID through a scanner be
fore voting to ensure everyone only
votes once and to ensure that voters are
enrolled University students.
Harding maintained it could be
done. Ositis said it would take “an act
of God” to implement.
The system was up and running by
midway through the second day of -
elections. The first day, Dave Whipple,
Elections Board publicity coordinator,
said there simply weren’t enough peo
ple to get the system up. However,
Harding said before she left, she had
set up a schedule and trained everyone
to use and set up the computer system.
Stacey Harding
Harding is responsible for the
ASUO elections, but she said she had
a severe reaction to medication
Wednesday morning. By Saturday, she
said she was in the hospital. However,
Harding did show up to campus
Wednesday to take a test for a class.
There was no communication be
tween her and the Elections Board. She
said she tried to call the members of the
board; they said they never heard from
her. They said they called her repeated
ly, but she said she was unconscious.
Harding said the Elections Board
jumped to conclusions and took ac
tions that were not warranted. Harding
said everyone was trained on how to
set up the computers, adding, “a mon
key could have run the computers.”
During Campus Talk on KWVA,
Whipple said he was acting as though he
and Maggie Veatch are the Elections
Board co-coordinators. A rumor has cir
culated that Harding has been fired.
However, Harding said she will show
up to work on Tuesday to continue at
her job. “I have never done anything to
warrant being fired,” Harding said. “I
can’t be fired because I have a docu
mented medical condition. Would they
fire someone if they were in a car crash?”
She said she feels quite flabbergast
ed by comments made by Elections
Board members, and she insisted she
is a dependable person. «
The Bottom Line
The elections have been both amus
ing and frustrating from the start. It
will be interesting to see the fallout
from all the in-fighting and miscom
munication. If nothing else, the Elec
tions Board has a lot of mistakes to
learn from for the next election.
This editorial represents the opinion
of the Emerald editorial board.
In the April 18th ODf.it was
incorrectly reported that the
computer system used in vot
ing did not work due to comput
er errors. There are actually two
computer systems, one for veri
fying enrollment and another
for counting ballots. The count
ing system did not work on the
computer it was supposed to,
but instead worked on an older
computer. The verification sys
tem did work but was not uti
lized until the second day be
cause there weren't enough
people to set it up.
The Emerald regrets the error.
LETTERS
SETA lies
Allow me to challenge the stu
dents at the University of Oregon
to vote down a student fee increase
for a change.
During this spring’s election sea
son, Students for the Ethical Treat
ment of Animals will request ap
proximately $5,000 from us so that
they might educate us about ani
mal research.
Careful examination of SETA’s
disseminated information and one
conversation with a pamphleteer
have left me no choice but to con
clude that there is a disturbing
amount of ignorance behind their
actions and “educational” cam
paigns. One member informed me
that HIV cannot infect any species
other than Homo sapiens. Howev
er, HIV did not even originate in
the human species.
Animal research is conducted as
much as possible on animals
which either aren’t capable of suf
fering in any human sense (such as
zebrafish) or are made to suffer as
little as possible. The primate re
search featured on much of SETA’s
literature and posters is rare.
The research performed is in
deed not directly leading to any
cure, but that may be a deceptive
statement. One cannot attempt to
design a drug or gene therapy to
cure a disease that is not fully un
derstood.
In the case of Alzheimer’s dis
ease, for example, the symptoms
are painfully obvious, but that does
not mean that we therefore know
how it is caused or how to treat it
effectively.
SETA does not deserve our mon
ey, nor the title of “educator,"
when it cannot educate its own
membership. Rather than being ed
ucators, SETA members do no
more than dispense outright misin
formation and flashlight-under
the-chin ghost stories. Let them say
what they want, but not with our
money backing their shenanigans
up.
Trevor Miller
Biology
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