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Election ballots recounted
Colin Atagi, Daily Senior Staff Writer
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Cori Miller, adviser for Associated Students election board, said several candidates from both parties asked, in writing, for a recount. She said the recount showed there was a difference of six votes less than the original count of 2,412, but the winners based on the previous count would stay the same.
Sam Casas, chair of the Impact Party, said he was satisfied with the original results, but felt it was necessary to hold a recount just to be sure.
"Some of our candidates spread was very close," he said. "Denise Olenak's was six, some were in the 40 range and mine was 36 I lost by. I think if anything, it's just for peace of mind, I guess, for a lot of the other candidates and for all of us to do the recount."
He said the machine that was used to count the votes could also have been responsible.
"I guess a lot of people question the ballot machines because of what happened two years ago in Florida with the presidential election. A lot of people don't trust the machines."
Casas said he isn't assuming the machine was at fault, but he said he does want to make sure the proper number of votes got counted.
Richard Wong, a junior majoring in sociology, said he was worried since machines are used to count test scores.
"For all I know, I could have done better or worse on one of my tests," he said. "I know teachers don't have to worry about grading more than 2,000 tests at once, but they should still check things."
Casas said he would inform the Impact Party of the result and they will decide if a hand count is necessary.
"It just raises questions of accuracy of the ballot machine used," he said.
Evan Kimber, research technician for the Institutional Planning and Academic Resources, said the main causes for miscounts are not because of the machines.
He said it is possible that a misreading can take place when a bubble on the ballot isn't filled in dark enough or if someone accidentally votes for two people in the same category.
Akbar Shetty, a senior majoring in marketing, was a representative of the Spartan Party at the recount.
He said he liked that a recount was being held and all parties could benefit from it since he thinks it would be important just to be sure the votes were counted properly, though he said he was also unsure of the machines accuracy.
"Of course, with the recount, I'm a little upset that a hand count didn't take place, since a (machine) recount would probably yield the same results," he said.
Shetty said he wants to be sure as to who won the election since it could be determined everyone won fairly.
"There were a lot of attacks as far as (people saying) you don't want a recount and stuff like that," he said. "Even though we're in the position that we won, we want a recount just to be sure all the ballots are counted correctly, and I think it's something that should be done all the time."
He said he felt bad that the election board had to take the time to participate in the recount.
Hien Huynh, a student-at-large on the election board, said the board asks at least three members overlook the recount. He said the board is supposed to be unbiased and make sure things go smoothly.
"We don't want any bad feelings towards the election as a whole," he said.
Christine Bronson, a sophomore majoring in biology, said she saw the signs that were messed with and thought a recount would tell the vandals if their actions were worth it.
"If someone from one of the parties lost even though they tried sabotaging their opponents signs, then they should feel dumb," she said. "I'd like for the deserving party to win the election."
William Chang, another student-at-large, said he didn't have any problem with the recount. He did say he was not happy about how the election was run in general.
"I was really upset," he said. "I thought we'd have a clean election. Soon enough, we got grievances filed, with this person saying this and that person saying that. It's one person's word against another and we can't really take action against that. All the board can do is disqualify someone.
"We need some way to keep things clean. As much as we hate things happening, like we care about signs getting torn down, there's nothing we can do."
