SGA Election Met With Tech Issues, Some Students May Still Vote

This week’s Student Government Association (SGA) election was met with unforeseen challenges to the ballot count. 

The vote took place online over two days from March 5 to March 6, ending at 5 p.m. There were three tickets on the ballot. At the end of the voting period, Ethan Gladue and Jillian Schulte received the most votes with a count of 622 votes. Behind them by seven votes was Libby Brust and Waverly Patterson. Griffin Petersen and Mady Fleckenstein received 309. The election is not officially finalized until 24 hours after voting ends. 

However, technical issues with the voting software Qualtrics caused a “substantial number of votes” to not be counted, according to Election Steering Committee (ESC) Chair Rachel Beare. 

When these voters tried to cast their vote, the session timed out and voters were removed from the platform. It is unknown what caused the technology issue.

ESC determined the amount of votes that were not counted warranted a new voting window for the students affected by the technology mishap.

Students whose votes weren’t counted are being offered a chance to make their vote again. Tomorrow at 8 a.m. voting will open to those impacted by the error. An email with a ballot will be sent to the students.

According to Beare, ESC is working closely with the Dean of Students and IT to communicate to the affected students. 

Voting will end at 5 p.m. and the official winners will be announced on SGA’s social media once all votes are counted. 

This is a developing story. The Volante will continue to update our website. For the latest, visit volanteonline.com or our social media pages.