Controversy still swirls around secretary race

Voters return to the polls Thursday for SGA runoff elections that were postponed a week because of glitches in the computer voting system.
The University released a statement Friday indicating the problem had been solved and the correct votes have been registered.
Approximately 40 votes were cast by people who had already graduated, according to Hunter Vanderberg, SGA elections commissioner.
Vanderberg said the investigation by SGA and Computing Services also revealed people voted in incorrect colleges. Correct numbers show new runoffs for senators in the Colleges of Pharmacy, Education and Arts and Sciences.
Vanderberg said the computing center stressed that the anonymity of voters was not compromised during the investigation. It is unclear how Computing Services found the ineligible voters while still not knowing who voted for what.
“I don’t know what they were looking for to determine who were graduates,” Vanderberg said. “I don’t know how they did it.”
The results of the investigation were not released until Friday afternoon after the University closed. Computing Services could not be reached for comment.
Some voters had been concerned the glitches may force new elections in the hotly contested referendums. Both the event center and the Bayou Park pool failed by a slim margin, the Bayou Park referendum failing by just 15 votes.
Vanderberg said after the ineligible votes were removed, the measure actually failed by a greater margin.

Secretary race

One big change voters might notice is a change in the candidates for secretary.
When SGA announced the results two weeks ago, Clayton Branton and Ash Aulds were to face each other in the runoff. Now, Jana Robinson, who was the top vote getter in the primary, is on the ballot in place of Aulds.
Vanderberg confirmed Robinson was disqualified Thursday, April 19, because she was under investigation for hacking into SGA President Brooke Dugas’ email account.
The alleged hacker posed as Dugas and emailed more than 150 campus leaders Wednesday, April 18, campaigning for three candidates seeking office. Robinson was among the candidates the hacker told people to vote for.
Vanderberg said Robinson appealed her disqualification. He would not comment on the specific nature the evidence that the elections commission used to disqualify her or what evidence Robinson presented that put her back on the ballot.
“Jana was removed and appealed based on evidence. The appeal stood,” Vanderberg said. “We just took precaution because of the timing and how much time we had to decide and find new evidence, which is taking longer than we expected.”
Robinson declined to comment.