No more delay, vote today

Elections began yesterday after failed communication between the Student Senate Executive Board and the Student Senate Elections Committee resulted in a one-week delay for Student Senate president and vice president elections.

According to Kevin Carr, chair of the Elections Committee, the problem was the result of a "miscommunication" between Elections Committee members.

Prior to the missed president and vice president election, two elections had to be held for new Elections Committee members, since two Elections Committee members decided to run for president and vice president.

Student Senate Treasurer Nate Martell announced his run for Student Senate president at the Feb. 3 Student Senate meeting, and was replaced by Diversity Director Matt Brown, who announced his candidacy for vice president at the Feb. 10 meeting. Carr then took over for Brown.

For reasons unknown to any involved, communication or oversight was not established between Carr and the other elected Elections Committee members.

According to the AU Student Senate Constitution, the vice president oversees ad-hoc committees, but the Elections Committee is considered to be one of two standing committees. The other standing committee is the Finance Committee, overseen by the Finance Chair.

Kevin Kostyk, the current Student Senate vice president, says that the Elections Committee is not officially overseen by any Student Senate Executive Board members.

"That committee is called together by the president at Senate," Kostyk said. "It has to be neutral."

Election results will now be announced March 3, a week later than the specified date set by the constitution, giving presidential candidates Peter Nyitrai, Ana Devlin-Gauthier and Nathan Martell, and unopposed vice president candidate Matt Brown, an extra week to campaign. For the candidates, this also means seven more days of anxiety.

“Between midterms and elections, yeah, the stress levels are really high,” Nyitrai commented.

The polls opened on Feb. 28 and will remain open until March 2. Voting is through Blackboard, and the Elections Committee assures students that there will not be any kinks this time.

“It will be as easy as finding a test for a class,” Carr said when asked about the accessibility of the ballot. All voters need to do is log into their Blackboard account and locate the “Student Senate Voting” link.

Results will be announced at the March 3 Student Senate meeting in Nevins Theater. Student Senate meets at 8 p.m. every Wednesday in Nevins Theater in Powell Campus Center.

Thomas Fleming contributed to this article.