At yesterday’s meeting of the Georgetown University Student Association Senate, the most venerable senators approved the third member of the IRC Triumvirate Election Commission, the new chair of the Finance and Appropriations committee, and discussed the future of the GUSA Fund. And there were some long speeches read directly to Vox on unrelated topics, but we’ll save those for another time.

Three’s company

Election Commissioner Adam Giansiracusa (SFS ’12) presented his replacement, who was vetted by the executive and approved by the senate yesterday. Pavan Rajgopal (SFS ’15) was selected because of his basic competency as a person, according to Giansiracusa. Rajgopal was approved by the senate with the expectation (they even asked him about this) that he will serve until he graduates (or is removed by the senate for disqualifying a candidate for illegitimate reasons an hour before the election, as Speaker Adam Talbot (COL ’12) reminded him).

In response to a question about punishing candidates for violations, Rajgopal said that he would be comfortable with it, and he would rather be proactive in preventing violations.

It was also mentioned that Rajgopal is a member of the IRC, like the other two current members of the EC and was outgoing chair AG. ”We’ll not draw too much attention to that now,” Talbot added.

Fynapp

Since two members, including the chair, of the Finance and Appropriations committee moved to the executive, the senate approved Shiela Walsh (COL ’14), the first female finapp member, as chair and then appointed Robert Shepard (COL ’15) and Laura Kresse (SFS ’12) to the committee.

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Yesterday, the Georgetown University Student Association Senate tied up some loose ends from last week’s meeting, including, passing electoral reform laws, the FY13 budget, and the executive cabinet.

One of the few new items at the meeting the briefing by GUSA president Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) who talked about Georgetown Day. Gustafson said the executive has received around 20 applications for the Georgetown Day committee already (they make it look so easy), and they are moving ahead with planning.

The senate also approved the executive cabinet unanimously.

The second new item was the approval of the GUSA fund, which gave $350 to the Georgetown Israel Alliance for their annual Independence Day celebration. The Alliance requested $500, but that was brought down “for reasons of frugality,” according to Nate Tisa (SFS ’14).

From last week, the senate approved the FY13 budget after nearly a month from its initial draft publicaiton before spring break.

Also from last week, the senate passed the Omnibus Electoral Accountability and Regulation Act of 2012, which was virtually the same as last week except that it removed some stipulations to allow the Election Commission to use their best judgement in the exact punishment (instead of specifying it for them).

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It’s Georgetown University Student Association election day, all day!

The polls close at 11:59 p.m. tonight, and vote counting will take place all day tomorrow. Student Election Commissioners have said that ideally, they will disclose the results of today’s GUSA Presidential Election to the winners of the election, GUSA Speaker Adam Talbot (COL ’12), Parliamentarian Sam Ungar (COL ’12), and campus media Wednesday night at 11:00 p.m.

But we know you want to know how your ticket is doing now. So, take our poll: who did you vote for today?

You’re not alone if you can’t access the ballot the Election Commission sent out earlier this evening. GUSA Election Commissioner Mirco Haag (SFS `09) said he and the other members of your Friendly Neighborhood Election Commission are working on it.

So relax, complainants! After all, what’s a GUSA election without a little snafu? (I was like a kid in a candy store picking that link, I had so many options!)

Some have been able to access the key form to vote in the election that will determine who, out of 27 candidates, will fill the 10 GUSA Senate vacancies. While I sit tight waiting for them to resolve the glitch, I’m going to wonder at the fact that 27 students were willing to run for the GUSA Senate, with only 2 meetings left.

Those of you who clicked on the link in the Election Commission’s email for the GUSA Presidential runoff the moment (10:11 p.m.) it arrived in your inbox might have gotten scared that the Election Commission had thrown you for one last loop, just for old times’ sake.

In fact, GUSA dorks who tried to vote immediately were only met with this error page…:

GUSA Election Committee

GUSA Presidential Election Run-off 2009

This form is currently unavailable. It may be undergoing maintenance or may be shut down for some other reason. If you need more information, please contact the department listed above. Alternatively, write to electioncommission@georgetown.edu then relax and go make Spring Break plans.

…because the Election Commission had no control over when the email would be sent out. Since it was a Broadcast email, it had to go first through Director of Student Programs Erika Coen-Derr and then on to UIS. UIS ultimately presses send, whenever they feel like it from the sound of it.

Since they did so before midnight, the ballot didn’t work for the first few minutes after UIS sent out the email. In response, Election Commissioner Mirco Haag said the Election Commission has officially opened voting before the scheduled midnight kickoff, and the ballot will “possibly” remain open for more than 24 hours until midnight on Wednesday.

Happy voting! And when you do submit that ballot, look forward to an good-humored message from “Your Friendly Neighborhood Election Commission” (their email signoff, which I found delightful):

GUSA Election Committee

Thank you for voting in the GUSA Presidential Election Run-off. We hope you’ve had a nice day so far and that you’ve enjoyed the process as much as we have.

Kudos, new commissioners.

Reporting by Lillian Kaiser

After an anomalous problem-free election last year, it looks like last Thursday’s contest will add a new story to GUSA’s illustrious history of election scandal.  From the election commission to candidates and campus media:

Hi all,

The Election Commission has received several inquiries and complaints about this year’s election. In order to follow up and investigate each claim adequately, the Election Commission has decided, in accordance with the Student Association by-laws, to delay the announcement of results until early next week.

The Election Commission has no further comments at this time. We will contact candidates individually with any questions.

There was no indication of what the complaints were about, but smart money says they at least partially involved the labyrinthine ballots that required students to keep track of ranked votes for all eight tickets.  We’ll keep you updated.