Deyhim Claims Election Bias, SG to Extend Election

The Student Government Elections committee will be extending the election by three hours, so that it will end at 2:59 a.m. Friday instead of 11:59 p.m. Thursday. Michael Deyhim, a candidate for SG President, claimed that the election process was unfair to him because he did not have a profile posted for the first three hours of the election.

Bob Carroll, the SG Systems Administrator and Developer said that the profile was missing because “He didn't submit one to me. This requires participation on the part of the candidate... To be fair, some people don't know they need to give it to me.”

Deyhim sent an e-mail to Carroll the previous week asking for “the oppurtunity [sic] to review what will be posted on the voting website under my name.” He did not receive a response. “That was intentional,” said Carroll. “Candidates have no reason to contact me directly. I felt, 'Wow, this guy is wasting my time.'”

Carroll said that he intended to reply “eventually,” but the e-mail “got buried.”

The profile that was eventually posted for Deyhim came from information in his elections packet, which under SG rules had to be submitted by March 28th. “SG may have had that data,” said Carroll. “I didn't have that data. It's sad that there was a miscommunication internally, but these things happen.”

Colette Shaw, SG advisor, said that the committee's investigation had two conversations. “One of those conversations was about people's individual feelings” about specific candidates, she said. A second was about whether any member of the committee acted to assist or hurt any specific candidate. “They felt confident saying no,” she said.

Sasha Malinchoc, vice president of SG and chair of the elections committee, said, “There have been flaws in the election, but the elections committee has tried to be fair. I don't think Bob is biased against Michael. SG and the elections committee would stand behind that.”