Student Council Executive Turnover Postponed

Due to understaffing, technological issues and a delayed start to voting hours, the Student Council (StuCo) elections committee alerted the Exeter community that the Tuesday election will be rescheduled “to ensure the integrity” of the elections, according to an email sent on behalf of StuCo to the student body.Although students cast votes on Tuesday, the ballots will be nullified. The Elections Committee and current StuCo Executive Board reached the decision to reconduct the election with “no knowledge of the outcome of the election,” according to the email.During the voting on Tuesday, several students shared the difficulties of the booth’s inconsistent hours. “The closed booth means that I can’t support people in my dorm who are running. I have G/H so I can’t come during Uni-Free either,” lower Shrayes Upadhyayula said.Similarly, lower Allison Kim noted how voting times can skew election results. “Today, the booth was closed during E and F, which is a popular free among people who do sports. When the election booth is functional during all hours, the election process should be fine,” she said.Due to the irregular hours, lower Milan Gandhi supported the pushed elections. “Pushing the election was important because today’s election was not an accurate representation of the student body,” Gandhi said.Conversely, upper Will Clark did not think that the re-vote would affect the results. “I don’t think there will be a drastic change in support after today’s mishap.”In 2015, StuCo also opted to host a revote for their elections. Former StuCo adviser and Dean of Residential Life Carol Cahalane said that due to the errors in the 2015 election, “I support the decision to run this election again so as to be sure that it is completely fair to all candidates.”Secretary candidate Phillip Oravitan, a member of the StuCo party For the Students (FS), explained that Tuesday’s elections revealed weaknesses in scheduling polls for only one day. “I think that a better system would be voting over the course of a week, this would provide more of a voice to the student body, some of whom may be backed up with work and not able to vote on one particular day,” he said.Secretary candidate and FS Party member Phil Horrigan stressed that Tuesday’s mishap uncovered greater issues in the greater Student Council system. “I want to preface my comments with the fact that I think that I think the Elections Committee did everything that they could to make this election happen today. They worked diligently and professionally,” he said. “The election pushback does not shine a negative light on the individuals in charge of putting it on but on the StuCo system as a whole.”Horrigan pinpointed the understaffing as a representation of students’ interest in StuCo. “The fact that StuCo didn't have enough members who cared to string together a day of voting is both sad and frustrating. We need a change, we need to make StuCo interesting again, we need to get more people involved. The only way to do this is to open the body up to everyone,” Horrigan said.Current StuCo President Ayush Noori outlined alternative factors students should consider when hearing about the revote. “The fact that we are holding a second election shows the determination that we have to hold a fair and unbiased election with integrity. If anything, students should have more confidence in the voting system and that we will not let any possible errors influence the voting results.”Friday’s election will take place from 10:20 AM to 6:45 PM in the Agora.