Technical errors once again plagued the Student Union's voting system during elections last week, Union Secretary Alex Braver '09 said.The voting system has come under intense scrutiny by Union officials and students after recent elections, including last spring's, had persistent technical errors that allowed alumni to vote and disenfranchised some students, especially mid-years.

Students were unable to vote for about ninety minutes in a run-off election for Union treasurer Thursday after the final round of voting began at 2 p.m., said Braver, the chief elections commissioner.

In addition, first-years could cast their ballots for only one candidate in the race for senator for the class of 2010, when they should have been able to vote to fill two seats.

Braver said the vote tallies for the senator for the class of 2010 races were erased, and voting for those races ran until 3:30 p.m. Friday.

Braver said the errors stemmed from the Union's decision to classify students by their class year, which confused a voting system that works through LTS, so the Union reverted to classifying them as undergraduates to fix the error.

"It's not a game-breaking glitch, but it's a glitch that is annoying," Braver said.

The voting problems were particularly troublesome for the Union considering the closeness in the treasurer race between Brain Paternostro '07, the Union's former director of communications, and political newcomer Choon Woo Ha '08, in the primary round of the treasurer's election (see story).

Woo Ha was ahead of Paternostro by one vote in the primary round. Students voted in a run-off because the bylaw states that if the number of write-in candidates exceeds the margin of victory, the election requires a final round without the option of writing-in candidates. In the final round, Woo Ha prevailed by a margin of 14 votes.

Also, during voting last Tuesday, transitional-year program students could not access the primary round of the treasurer race until forty-five minutes after all other students, Braver said.

Newly-elected Senator for the Class of 2010 Rajiv Ramakrishnan praised Union officials for quickly correcting the errors Thursday night, after he had made it into the final round, and said he was confident the final vote tally would be accurate.

"These things happen," he said. "I'm glad the Student Union took care of it right away."

LTS Chief Technology Officer Anna Tomecka referred questions to the Student Union, but said last spring that LTS is committed to rewriting the voting system.

"The final vote result reflected 100% the will of the students," Braver said.

He said the Union will begin working with LTS "next week" to update the voting system.