Students Will Not Be Able To Change Votes In Election

The Election Commission (EC) considered but ultimately rejected allowing students to change their votes in the election for the Undergraduate Council’s (UC) top two leadership positions at a meeting last night.

As of 1 a.m. this morning, 1,812 students had already voted in the campus-wide election for the UC president and vice president.

Yesterday evening, the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA) and the Harvard Republican Club (HRC) issued a joint statement condemning statements made by John F. Voith ’07 and Tara Gadgil ’07 as contradictory (please see related article, at left).

The discrepancy sparked a flurry of e-mails over house and group open e-mail lists.

But EC Chair Michael B. Love ’08 said last night that because the voting system is completely anonymous, it would be impossible to allow people to change votes while preserving the integrity of the election.

“I’ve had roughly a dozen or so requests so far this evening, and if the pace continues, then the election could easily be tipped by people dishonestly changing their votes,” Love said. “That is because we have no way of validating who they voted for in the first place.”

Members of the John S. Haddock ’07 and Annie R. Riley ’07 campaign expressed their disappointment over the Election Commission’s decision not to allow people to change their votes.

“I think clearly a lot of people are concerned that they were deceived by John and Tara and we feel that if it is at all technology feasible, then we think it should be allowed,” said Joshua Patashnik ’07, who is the campaign manager of the Haddock-Riley ticket.

“There are a lot of people whose vote has been invalidated because of the deception of the Voith-Gadgil campaign,” he said.

Voith-Gadgil Campaign Manager Daniel A. Koh ’07 could not be reached for comment last night.

—ALEXANDER D. BLANKFEIN