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BY MELISSA BERTOSH

In print | Published April 27, 2006

This past Monday, Student Council informed the student body of a security breach of their online voting system in which one or more students gained access to the system and inserted fraudulent votes.

Uncertain about the integrity of results collected online, Student Council members set up polling locations at Sharples Dining Hall and Essie Mae’s Snack Bar for those students who had voted online to recast their vote.

Voting was extended through Wednesday for students on campus but the voting period cannot constitutionally end until all study abroad ballots are tallied.

“It’s a sensitive issue, and we want to handle it fairly,” said Etan Cohen ’07, a member of the Student Council Election Committee.

Student Council members discovered that fraudulent votes had been cast after a candidate in the election admitted in an e-mail that he or she had gained illicit access to the Web site, according to co-President Tom Evnen ’07.

“It’s frustrating for Council, and it’s frustrating for voters. I’m concerned about how it happened,” said Karen Lorang ’07, a candidate running for re-election as Campus Life Representative.

“I’m not sure how the problems will affect the individual candidates and the overall turnout. I’m hoping that those who took the time and had the concern to vote online will be willing to vote again,” Lorang said.

Eleanor Joseph ‘07, also running for re-election as Educational Policy Representative, expressed similar concerns. "I’m not sure how it will impact the campaign. Myself, I am running un-opposed, but other candidates had specifically timed campaigns, and the re-vote could present a problem," Joseph said.

Despite their current positions on Student Council, Lorang and Joseph were kept somewhat uninformed about specific actions and sequences of events surrounding the security breach due to their current campaigns.

Study abroad students have been informed of the problems plaguing the election by the same means as students on campus. “Many students have expressed interest in re-voting,” said Cohen.

“The online system has been fixed, but is only accessible for study abroad students,” Cohen said.

In response to the recent breach, Cohen noted that no system is completely secure.

“Illicit access can be gained with the given amount of knowledge. We trusted the student body,” he said.

The extended voting at Sharples and Tarble present a time crunch for Student Council. Results from the re-vote were originally planned to be announced Wednesday, but have since been pushed back.

To ensure students would only vote once, voting times were staggered between Sharples and Tarble, and student usernames were crossed off of a master list.

“There haven’t been many problems with the hand ballots, but a bit of a crowd does gather, and it gets difficult to handle,” said Alex Leader-Smith ’06, while polling at Sharples on Monday.

A statement will be released by Student Council on Friday through the Reserved Students Digest addressing the timeline for announcing results as well as the identity and repercussions of the candidate who hacked onto the voting Web site.

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