Council Cited for Lack of Organization

A candidate for the Eliot House Undergraduate Council delegation has complained about the lack of organization with this week's election process, and several house committee chairs said they were not sufficiently instructed on running the election.

The criticism comes on the heels of recent controversy surrounding the general election, which was placed in the hands of R. Gin Lo '94 last Friday.

Lo delegated responsibilities for the tabling, which was supposed to take place from dinner Tuesday through lunch yesterday, to house committee chairs.

The candidate, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was worried that the lack of tabling at every meal last week could skew election results.

"There were times when I went to the dining hall and no one was there with anything," he said. "And these were common meal times."

But Lo attributed tabling troubles to the small amount of time she was given to arrange the election--and therefore house committees had less time to prepare.

"There's so much that needed to be organized before the freshmen arrived," she said. "And I only took over last Friday, which was the original date that candidacy had to be declared."

The declaration deadline was extended to Monday, leaving Lo with only one day in which to have ballots printed for each of the houses and the Harvard Union.

Lo said the houses were requested to jointly conduct council balloting to coincide with last week's senior class marshal elections.

The Eliot candidate said he became suspicious of house committee negligence when several of his friends told him that they had gone to dinner to attempt to vote for him and found that there was no voting taking place.

But Lo said, "After the ballots left my hands on Tuesday, I had no control over them."

Some house committee chairs said yesterday they were neither consulted nor sufficiently instructed about the nuances of the balloting.

"I never received any correspondence regarding the election," said Lowell House Committee co-Chair Meredith A. Fitzgerald '94.

Fitzgerald also said she went several times to pick up the ballots at Wadsworth House on the designated day, but Lo was nowhere to be found.

Fitzgerald said she left repeated messages and notes for Lo because she was concerned that she didn't receive any position papers from Lowell House candidates.

But she said no one contacted her. "I didn't know what was going on."

Lo conceded that her lack of communication with many house committee chairs may have jeopardized chances for consistent balloting.

"I would guess that a lot of people would have a right to be upset, but with the amount of time we had there was nothing we could do," Lo said.

"I would guess that a lot of people would havea right to be upset, but with the amount of timewe had there was nothing we could do," Lo said.

House committee chairs were informed onlyTuesday morning that they would be expected tobegin tabling at dinner that night.

"I was frazzled and surprised when I foundout," Fitzgerald said, "especially because Ididn't even have the ballots yet."

Leverett House Committee Chair Melissa M. Kwee'94 said that she knew of only one meal last weekat which balloting did not take place because thehouse committee member who signed up to cover ithad a last minute commitment.

"But the election was so last minute and poorlyrun that things could have been worse in otherhouses," Kwee added.

Lo said the "time crunch" also hampered hereffort to compile candidates' position papers forposting or distribution. She said she onlyprepared the position papers of the first-yearstudents, "who were the ones who really neededextra attention so that people would know who theyare."

Neither of the house committee co-chairs atEliot, the source of the original complaint,returned phone calls last night

"I would guess that a lot of people would havea right to be upset, but with the amount of timewe had there was nothing we could do," Lo said.

House committee chairs were informed onlyTuesday morning that they would be expected tobegin tabling at dinner that night.

"I was frazzled and surprised when I foundout," Fitzgerald said, "especially because Ididn't even have the ballots yet."

Leverett House Committee Chair Melissa M. Kwee'94 said that she knew of only one meal last weekat which balloting did not take place because thehouse committee member who signed up to cover ithad a last minute commitment.

"But the election was so last minute and poorlyrun that things could have been worse in otherhouses," Kwee added.

Lo said the "time crunch" also hampered hereffort to compile candidates' position papers forposting or distribution. She said she onlyprepared the position papers of the first-yearstudents, "who were the ones who really neededextra attention so that people would know who theyare."

Neither of the house committee co-chairs atEliot, the source of the original complaint,returned phone calls last night