NEC charged with violating election rules

Charges of election rule violations were filed against the Nominations and Elections Committee last night following the close of Undergraduate Assembly elections yesterday. The five charges, brought by College senior Mike Nadel, accuse the NEC of mishandling election procedure and publicity. The first charge accuses the NEC of violating election procedure by preventing students taking only three course units from voting. The NEC constitution states that all full-time students are allowed to vote. According to Nadel, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, the University defines a full-time student as a student who is taking three or more classes. But NEC Chairperson and Wharton senior Ning Hsu said the group did allow such students to vote in the election. The second charge disputes the NEC's decision not to count blank ballots toward overall voter participation numbers. In order for the passage of a constitutional referendum to be binding, a majority vote of at least 20 percent of eligible voters is required. Nadel explained that students who turned in blank ballots intended them as abstentions. "I would like to see the NEC pay respect to people who took the time to come out and vote but could not support any plan," he said. But Hsu said that Nadel's motive is self-interest. "Nadel wanted us to count blank ballots so his referendum [Plan B] could pass," Hsu said. "The referenda ballots offered the student to vote 'neither.' That was an official abstention." The third charge stems from the NEC's decision to classify Referendum One, allowing students to decide on Student Activities Council allocations, as a constitutional referendum. As a constitutional referendum, it would require 20 percent voter participation to be binding rather than the 15 percent required for non-constitutional plans. Nadel explained that the plan does not require changing the current UA constitution. "The current UA could do this next week if they wanted," Nadel said. Hsu argued that the plan does indeed require a change, since under the current constitution, the UA may not interfere with SAC, as this amendment suggests. The fourth charge alleges that the NEC distributed ballots to students ineligible to vote. According to Nadel, this charge pertains specifically to seniors voting for UA members. While seniors were eligible to vote for the referenda, they were not allowed to cast ballots for UA elections. Nadel claimed that he voted in the UA elections. He speculated that many others probably voted as well. This is in violation of NEC rules, he said, because seniors are not supposed to vote for next year's representatives. The last charge accuses the NEC of influencing the vote by incorrectly paraphrasing the referenda on the election ballot. Nadel explained that the ballot failed to explain that Plan B would eliminate the UA. The summary also failed to mention the existence of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education under the plan. He said it also buried the plan's main feature, a student body president, in the middle of the summary. "People don't know what they are voting for based on the NEC ballot," Nadel said. "We discussed these issues with them, and explained what we felt was important and we were ignored." But Hsu said these charges were unfounded. "We asked them for a submission of a summary and his was outrageous, so we fixed it," she said. "We are very unbiased and the two summaries are almost identical in form. "We have been doing advertisements and offered full length copies," she added. "We can't do any more." Nadel said that despite the violations, he would not like the referenda to be voted on again, fearing that they would not get the required 20 percent. Rather, he said he would like the NEC to rectify the problem by counting the blank ballots in the 20 percent. As for the UA ballot, which is affected by the additional charge of seniors voting, Nadel said he feels the NEC should hold new elections.