Next time students vote in a Student Union election, they will probably do so on an outsourced system.Union officials say they will purchase a voting program from BigPulse, a company that makes online-election software, in time for the Union's spring elections.

Last December, Union officials said they were leaning toward using BigPulse over having Library and Technology Services develop open-source software because they were afraid that LTS would then have to deflect its attention from other projects benefiting students.

The current elections system has seen various glitches in the previous years.

At a Jan. 21 Senate meeting, Union Vice President Aaron Gaynor '07 said the switch "would actually allow us to do elections without problems."

Gaynor's own election last spring came under scrutiny because his original margin of victory over Brian Paternostro '07, now director of communications, by four votes was reduced to two after the Union learned that two alumni had voted in the race.

"There are glitches in the [current] system," Paternostro said. "As a democratically elected Student Union, there shouldn't be questionable results," and BigPulse is a "reliable" solution.



-Justin Sulsky