By James Keller
The Students’ Union Review Board will hear a petition regarding the SU General Election, filed by failed presidential candidate Phil Barski.
On the afternoon of Wed., Mar. 3, the review board, the judicial body that oversees the SU, released a notice announcing a public hearing will be held Thu., Mar. 18, 2004. The petition, posted on the window of the SU offices, was filed by Barski on behalf of himself and 14 other members of Barski’s Cabinet.
The petition alleges three things: that on Tue., Feb 10, the first day of voting, the online voting system “experienced great difficulty” and experienced downtime; that these periods of downtime reoccurred over the course of the election; and that voters’ ballots were closed, candidates were pre-selected and there were “other anomalies throughout the online system.”
The original petition claims these errors were the result of flaws in the voting system provided by Sorex Software Inc.
The announcement comes just one week after Sorex Software issued a letter in response to allegations surrounding the validity of the online voting.
In the letter, Sorex Software Director Marc Wrubleksi assured SU Chief Returning Officer Shuvaloy Majumdar that the “integrity of the data is intact.” Wrubleksi admitted there were problems for some voters accessing the system, but blamed these on an unusually large ballot size. He added that students who experienced problems were able to resubmit their votes, and that all successfully collected ballots were collected in full and uncompromised.
When asked about the review board case, Wrubleksi declined comment until he was able to look over the official complaint.
The petition claims irregularities affected “the overall val- idity of the 2004 SU election” and the errors “compromised the election result.” Furthermore, the petition asks for “an independent audit conducted by an independent source,” to remedy alleged by-law infractions.
Barski could not be reached for comment, however, Hardeep Sangha, who worked on the Barski’s Cabinet campaign, told the Gauntlet: “fuck you, read the Calgary Herald.”
SU President Jayna Gilchrist said it would “not be appropriate to comment” immediately following the announcement.
Neither Majumdar nor Review Board Chair Arlene Blake could be reached for comment before deadline.