Eliot Casts New Ballots After Mixup

The Eliot House Committee rescheduled elections for student assembly representatives Wednesday after students conducting the election wrote an unofficial candidate's name onto the ballot

Peter D. Fitzsimmons '79, co-chairman of the Eliot House Committee, said yesterday Stephanie C.M. Monaghan '80 failed to write her name on the official candidates' list and therfore was not included on the ballot.

Monaghan approached the election table Wednesday afternoon and asked that her name be added to the ballot forms. An election official added her name to an unknown number of ballots. Ellen Burkhardt '79, co-chairman of the Eliot House Committee said yesterday she ordered the election halted when she saw the altered ballots.

New Vote

Burkhardt said she discussed the issue with Laura Gordon Fisher, senior tutor in Eliot House, and with Joseph H. Yeager '79, one of the organizers of the Constitutional Convention. They decided to delete Monaghan's name from the ballot and to reschedule elections for Thursday and Friday, she said.

Monaghan said yesterday the incident was "just a matter of confusion." She said she had thought her name would be on the ballot because she had mentioned her plans to run for office to Burkhardt before the official ballots were printed.

"Let me stress I consider it a fair decision. The rules were written down," Monaghan said.

No Big Deal

"I didn't want to make it a big deal,,' she said, adding that she will not run as a write-in candidate in the new election.

Michael A. Calabrese '79, chairman of the Constitutional Convention, said yesterday the House Committee adopted guidelines for the elections which stated that candidates had to announce their intention to run by October 2 in order to be eligible.

Individual House Committees were responsible for conducting the elections according to the guidelines, Calabrese said, adding "they didn't have to ask us what to do."

Some other candidates had complained because Monaghan's inked-in name was featured so prominently on the ballot, Calabrese said.