SFS ELECTIONS Technical Difficulties Prompt Academic Council Re-elections By Sean Abouchedid Hoya Staff Writer

The School of Foreign Service’s Academic Council held re-elections for its two freshman representative positions Monday due to technical difficulties associated with online voting in the original election on Sept. 13.

According to Stacey Tsai (SFS ’03), a junior representative on the Academic Council and a member of the election commission, one of the freshman candidate’s names was not listed on the online ballot at the start of voting Sept. 13. By the time the problem was discovered, 18 students had already voted. When the election returns came in, the commission found that one of the losing candidates, whom Tsai did not name, had lost by less than 18 votes. After meeting with the candidates and deliberating among themselves, the commission chose to hold re-elections the following Monday.

In a related incident, two of the freshman candidates, whom Tsai did not name, were disqualified from the election. Though she did not elaborate on the nature of the charges, Tsai said that evidence was brought to the council that one of the candidates had broken the rules. After considering this evidence and meeting with the candidate in question, the council elected to disqualify them.

Tsai maintained, however, that this incident had nothing to do with the decision to hold re-zelections. “The disqualification was not the primary reason [for having reelections],” she said. “The main reason was that one candidate wasn’t listed on the ballot.”