On Sept. 16, the Brandeis Student Union announced it had to re-run elections for the Myra Kraft Achievers Program seat. Student government conducted its Fall SU election on Sept. 13 and says that no other contests appear to have been impacted. Results for the SU election were scheduled to be released Monday Sept. 16 but have since been delayed. 

In her email to students on Monday morning, Student Union Secretary Rachel Gao ’25 shared that there was an “issue with the MKAP Senator position ballot” and that new ballots would be sent out to all MKAP students to cast their vote for the MKAP Senate seat. New ballots were sent out Monday afternoon and students were given 24 hours to cast their ballots. 

In a Sept. 16 email to The Justice, Student Union President Rani Balakrishna ’25 explained that the occurrence was a “genuine mistake.” She shared that the issue was that Qualtrix survey — the software used to cast votes — restricted voting for the Myra Kraft Achievers Program seat to only freshmen. Balakrishna emphasized that all students of the Myra Kraft Achievers Program are eligible to vote and “that is what will happen with this makeup vote.” 

According to Balakrishna, the issue was not new to the election cycle. It had been “overlooked in past years” and was only caught this week. 

Balakrishna wants to reassure students that the Qualtrix survey is “secure” explaining that only students from Brandeis can vote and vote only once.

As a result of the issue, release of all election results will be postponed until Tuesday Sept. 17.