Another Student Union election cycle has come and gone, and for the second year in a row, multiple issues of concern arose.

This year's issues include problems with sending out the ballot, as well as declaring who had won in one race.

The "error in our All Campus polling system," as reported by Student Union Secretary Carlton Shakes '14, involved sending the ballot to graduated students from the Class of 2012. Additionally, a significant portion of the Class of 2016 did not receive emails with a link to the voting website.
Moreover, the Union announced that a candidate was elected into the Union even though he did not receive the greatest amount of votes. While mistakes are inevitable, more care should have been taken in reading and sending out the ballots.

Additionally, students were not given a clear-enough picture about the voting process. After a problematic Student Union election cycle last fall, former Student Union President Herbie Rosen '12 announced changes to the computerized polling system. Most notably, in addition to the "abstain" option, a "skip" option was added to prevent confusion among voters.

When students had previously voted for the "abstain" option, they presumed that they were skipping that specific election.

In actuality, they were electing "abstain" to positions in the Union; Senate bylaws dictate that if "abstain" receives the most votes, no candidate can win the election. As a solution, the "skip" option was introduced in order to alleviate the problem of "abstain" votes outnumbering actual candidate votes.

Last week, when Student Union Secretary Carlton Shakes '14 sent out voting information, he did not include an explanation for the new system implemented last year.

Students who may have forgotten about the new voting options added last year, but more importantly, first-years who have never voted before, were likely confused by the presence of both a "skip" and "abstain" option. The problem is particularly pertinent to first-years, as voter turnout and enthusiasm is highest in that demographic.

Additionally, despite the addition of the "abstain" and "skip" options, the Union announced that Dean Kaplan '15 was elected as the off-campus senator, even though Kaplan received only 20 votes and the "abstain" option received 23 votes.

While the off-campus senator position should have undergone another round of elections because the "abstain" option won, Kaplan was announced as the winner-an error on account of the Union's reporting.

We are concerned by this oversight. These procedures were put in place last year with the intention of decreasing errors in Union elections.

With more carefully crafted emails and more attention to detail, future elections can proceed without faults. If the Student Union can pay more attention to election procedures, the student body may be able to take our representatives more seriously.