Freshmen elections for UA, class boards to start today

The on-line voting for freshman representatives to the Undergraduate Assembly and class board candidates begins today at 8 a.m. There are 67 members of the Class of 2003 running in the election, with eight students running for positions on both the UA and the class board, according to Nominations and Elections Committee Vice Chairperson of Elections Teresa Lee, an Engineering junior. And 32 freshmen are running for eight available positions on the UA. In elections for class board officers, 13 students are running for president, seven for vice president, five for treasurer, two for secretary and three for vice president of corporate sponsorship. There are five students running for the two College spots on the board, four for the Wharton seat, two for the Engineering seat and two for the Nursing seat. The NEC will announce the results of the election next Thursday evening after it deliberates on any rules-violation charges brought against candidates or the NEC at its Fair Practices Code hearing. NEC Chairperson Christine Naselaris, a College senior, said she doesn't expect students to encounter any difficulties with the online system, which will remain open continuously until 6 p.m. next Wednesday. "We have tweaked the system to the point where problems that occurred during last year's elections shouldn't occur this year," she said. Freshmen can vote online at http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~nec/vote.html. There will be no paper balloting in elections this year. While freshmen may be aware that elections are taking place this week, many said they are unsure of what the candidates for office stand for. College freshman Melinda Gordon said the online voting system "hasn't been too [well] publicized," noting that many of her friends don't know how to vote on the NEC's World Wide Web site. Gabriel Gottlieb, an Engineering freshman, said he knew how to use the online voting system from posters and e-mails he has received but is "absolutely not" confident that he knows enough about most of the candidates to know which ones he wants to vote for. Gottlieb said he planned to "try to make an informed decision" based on the contents of the Daily Pennsylvanian ad paid for by the NEC to publicize candidate views.