Pranks mar S.E. Yard race

First-year shenanigans festered in this fall's council race.

The race in the Southeast Yard was marred by three separate, bizarre incidents.

Even as council officials made outreach efforts to persuade minority students and women to run for the council, election supervisors were wrestling with phony candidate registrations, pseudonymous entries and even a group of Weld residents who wanted to share one council seat among a suite of six roommates.

A candidate was removed from the ballot for sending a mass e-mail message; more than 13 candidates were registered as a prank from public computers in the Science Center and six men tried to run as a single candidate.

"Jimmy Carter"

James W. Carter '01 registered as a candidate under the name "Jimmy Carter."

The council election commis- sion-fearing that the resemblance to the 39th president's moniker would cause students to dismiss the candidacy as a joke-registered Carter first as "James Carter," and then as "James 'Jimmy' Carter," when Carter protested.

Carter again protested, and the commission relented, listing him as "Jimmy Carter," according to Benjamin W.Hulse '99, the election commission co-chair.

The nomenclature hurdle crossed, Carter nonetheless was removed from the ballot for violating University rules.

Hulse received several complaints from students who did not know Carter but had received an e-mail from him soliciting votes.

"Why should you vote for Jimmy Carter? Well, for the name if nothing else. My only concern right now is resolving the clutter of postings that cover the gates to the Science Center," Carter wrote in his e-mail, which was obtained by The Crimson. "Because of my feelings on this, I am not hanging flyers to campaign."

Since sending mass e-mails to people one does not know is against Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) regulations, Hulse removed Carter's name from the ballot.

At an earlier introductory meeting for prospective candidates last week, Council President Lamelle D.Rawlins '99 had warned candidates only to send e-mail to acquaitances and friends.

"Peter D'Man"

On Wednesday night, at least 13 candidates were registered during a 25-minute time span from public terminals in the Science Center. Thirteen of these had last names beginning with the letter "A", and all lived in the Southeast Yard.

"That's a pretty good indicator that something's up," Hulse said.

Instead of sending all the candidates the usual confirmation e-mail, Hulse began calling the students to make sure they wanted to be registered. When the first four of these persons denied that they wanted to run for the council, Hulse decided that the other "A" registrations were fraudulent as well.

Included among these entries was a registration from Peter "D'Man" Ciganik'01, a resident of Weld.

Ciganik has previously twice attempted to register as a council candidate, under the pseudonym "D'Man." Because he did not provide a phone number, he was not allowed to register.

While investigating the "A" registrants, Hulse declined to register Ciganik, thinking his entry was fraudulent, Hulse said. And neither Ciganik nor any of the other candidates who were denied registration contacted Hulse when their names did not appear on the ballot.

Ciganik couldn't be reached last night.

"There's a relative lack of security in this submitting by Web," Hulse said. "I just trusted people to be serious about it."

Students have voted for council representatives over the Internet since last year, although this election was the first in which candidates could register on line.

All of the fraudulent registrations were made from Science Center computers and could not be traced to an individual user, Hulse said.

Weld 11

The six first-year residents of Weld Room 11 felt they could work well together from their first day at Harvard. Edward S.Baker, Scott G.Farber, Jacob E. Fleming, Arthur E.Koski-Karell, Matthew S. O'Hare and Joshua J. Wilske even converted one room of their suite into a casino in lieu of living in singles.

All six men were interested in running for the council, but were worried they would lose since they share the same friends.

"We thought that if we all ran we'd split the votes," Fleming said. "We know a lot of people, this room is a center of activity.

Rather than competing against each other for the six Southeast Yard council slots, the Weld residents asked Council Vice President Mark A. Price '98 if they could run as a single entity and split the responsibilities of one representative.

"The student body votes for the people they want to be there representatives," Fleming said. "If they thought that they would be better represented by a group than an individual, then let them vote for us."

Since he could find nothing in the council by-laws that explicitly prohibited a group to run for one Council seat, Price asked the six to submit a paper to him explaining their request, which he said he would then bring to the election commission, Price said last night.

Instead of following Price's instructions, the Weld residents decided to register since Price had seemed receptive to their requests. They purchased an e-mail address from an Internet service provider, "mailexcite.com," to use for the group.

When he received their registration, Hulse decided to deny the students a slot on the ballot.

"I did not believe they were serious about running for the U.C.," Hulse said. "I knew it was a joke so I decided to treat it with a sense of humor," Hulse added.

"Y'all are freshmen. You have no rights individually, not to mention collectively," Hulse wrote them in an e-mail message.

The Weld residents had already begun to poster and to advertise their candidacy.

They again attempted to register, and were again refused a position on the ballot. After this attempt, the Weld students decided not to run for the council at all.

"We just decided that if this was the way the U.C. operated, we didn't want to be a part of it," Fleming said.

It was an egregious misuse of power on the part of [Hulse]," Farber said. "We figured everyone was going to be professional about it."

Price said that the Weld men went about their candidacy in the wrong way.

"I told them what process to take and they obviously didn't take that process," Price said.

Hulse said that the Weld collective candidacy represented a lack of commitment to the U.C.

"There was boundless evidence that they were maliciously trying to waste our time," Hulse said

Carter again protested, and the commission relented, listing him as "Jimmy Carter," according to Benjamin W.Hulse '99, the election commission co-chair.

The nomenclature hurdle crossed, Carter nonetheless was removed from the ballot for violating University rules.

Hulse received several complaints from students who did not know Carter but had received an e-mail from him soliciting votes.

"Why should you vote for Jimmy Carter? Well, for the name if nothing else. My only concern right now is resolving the clutter of postings that cover the gates to the Science Center," Carter wrote in his e-mail, which was obtained by The Crimson. "Because of my feelings on this, I am not hanging flyers to campaign."

Since sending mass e-mails to people one does not know is against Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) regulations, Hulse removed Carter's name from the ballot.

At an earlier introductory meeting for prospective candidates last week, Council President Lamelle D.Rawlins '99 had warned candidates only to send e-mail to acquaitances and friends.

"Peter D'Man"

On Wednesday night, at least 13 candidates were registered during a 25-minute time span from public terminals in the Science Center. Thirteen of these had last names beginning with the letter "A", and all lived in the Southeast Yard.

"That's a pretty good indicator that something's up," Hulse said.

Instead of sending all the candidates the usual confirmation e-mail, Hulse began calling the students to make sure they wanted to be registered. When the first four of these persons denied that they wanted to run for the council, Hulse decided that the other "A" registrations were fraudulent as well.

Included among these entries was a registration from Peter "D'Man" Ciganik'01, a resident of Weld.

Ciganik has previously twice attempted to register as a council candidate, under the pseudonym "D'Man." Because he did not provide a phone number, he was not allowed to register.

While investigating the "A" registrants, Hulse declined to register Ciganik, thinking his entry was fraudulent, Hulse said. And neither Ciganik nor any of the other candidates who were denied registration contacted Hulse when their names did not appear on the ballot.

Ciganik couldn't be reached last night.

"There's a relative lack of security in this submitting by Web," Hulse said. "I just trusted people to be serious about it."

Students have voted for council representatives over the Internet since last year, although this election was the first in which candidates could register on line.

All of the fraudulent registrations were made from Science Center computers and could not be traced to an individual user, Hulse said.

Weld 11

The six first-year residents of Weld Room 11 felt they could work well together from their first day at Harvard. Edward S.Baker, Scott G.Farber, Jacob E. Fleming, Arthur E.Koski-Karell, Matthew S. O'Hare and Joshua J. Wilske even converted one room of their suite into a casino in lieu of living in singles.

All six men were interested in running for the council, but were worried they would lose since they share the same friends.

"We thought that if we all ran we'd split the votes," Fleming said. "We know a lot of people, this room is a center of activity.

Rather than competing against each other for the six Southeast Yard council slots, the Weld residents asked Council Vice President Mark A. Price '98 if they could run as a single entity and split the responsibilities of one representative.

"The student body votes for the people they want to be there representatives," Fleming said. "If they thought that they would be better represented by a group than an individual, then let them vote for us."

Since he could find nothing in the council by-laws that explicitly prohibited a group to run for one Council seat, Price asked the six to submit a paper to him explaining their request, which he said he would then bring to the election commission, Price said last night.

Instead of following Price's instructions, the Weld residents decided to register since Price had seemed receptive to their requests. They purchased an e-mail address from an Internet service provider, "mailexcite.com," to use for the group.

When he received their registration, Hulse decided to deny the students a slot on the ballot.

"I did not believe they were serious about running for the U.C.," Hulse said. "I knew it was a joke so I decided to treat it with a sense of humor," Hulse added.

"Y'all are freshmen. You have no rights individually, not to mention collectively," Hulse wrote them in an e-mail message.

The Weld residents had already begun to poster and to advertise their candidacy.

They again attempted to register, and were again refused a position on the ballot. After this attempt, the Weld students decided not to run for the council at all.

"We just decided that if this was the way the U.C. operated, we didn't want to be a part of it," Fleming said.

It was an egregious misuse of power on the part of [Hulse]," Farber said. "We figured everyone was going to be professional about it."

Price said that the Weld men went about their candidacy in the wrong way.

"I told them what process to take and they obviously didn't take that process," Price said.

Hulse said that the Weld collective candidacy represented a lack of commitment to the U.C.

"There was boundless evidence that they were maliciously trying to waste our time," Hulse said