The Nominations and Elections Committee, the body in charge of overseeing elections, made a mistake that could potentially have the upcoming freshman election results thrown out.
Each October, the NEC runs an ad in The Daily Pennsylvanian displaying statements from candidates who are running for Undergraduate Assembly and Freshman Class Boards.
Christina Martin, a Wharton freshman, is running for both Undergraduate Assembly and vice president of corporate sponsorship, but her statement and photo were accidentally left out from the UA section.
In addition, Martin's name had originally been left off the online ballot and was added Wednesday morning when the error was brought to the attention of the NEC.
Jessie Smyth, a College freshman, is running for UA and Class Board secretary, and her UA statement was mistakenly printed under her picture for secretary when the ad ran in the DP on Wednesday.
In order to remedy the situation, the NEC ran the correct statements in a separate advertisement in the DP Thursday.
NEC Chairwoman Rebecca Silberman said that the time the students lost by appearing in the DP the following day is offset by the fact that that they appear by themselves.
"We're not looking at it as having biased the elections," said Silberman, a College senior. "Christina and Jessie understand that it was a mistake, and they were happy with the resolution."
In 1997, two candidates' statements were left out of the NEC's election insert, and the candidates filed charges against the NEC, accusing the committee of violating its Fair Practices Code. That year, the election results for freshman UA representatives and freshman class vice president were thrown out because of the charges.
Silberman said that she did not think that would happen this year.
"In my opinion, they won't pull a violation up against the NEC," Silberman said. "Christina sounded OK with it. She still has the opportunity to bring a violation against the NEC itself.... They were really nice about the whole thing."
Martin said she thinks that the NEC resolved the situation as best it could. However, she does think that the NEC should send out the ballot to all the candidates to look over before the start of voting.
"I thought that was a pretty obvious suggestion," Martin said. "I am upset that I wasn't on the ballot until the next morning.... I do plan on looking at the Fair Practices Code."
Smyth was not concerned about being left out.
"Mistakes happen. They handled it the best way possible," Smyth said. "Many people read the DP every day... the likelihood that people saw it today is just as high."
Martin also said that she does not know how much of an effect her late entrance onto the ballot has had, as it would depend on how many people voted during the hours before her name was added. Silberman said she would look into that issue, but she does not know if that information can be ascertained.
According to Tatiana Bautista, the NEC's vice chairwoman of elections, since Martin brought the mistake to her attention and Bautista told her how it would be corrected, Martin has not complained. She also said she thought that Smyth seemed very pleased with the way the NEC corrected the situation.
So far, Bautista has only received one complaint from a candidate concerning the way the situation was resolved.
Bautista said that the candidate was worried that the follow-up ad would give Martin an unfair advantage because she would appear alone in the paper. However, Bautista explained the NEC's position that the day Martin had lost as a result of her ad running late would basically be balanced by the fact that she would appear in the DP ad alone.
"I haven't received any [complaints] after the ad went out," Bautista said.
"The other candidates don't seem to view the spread... or the difference of a day, as what will make or break the election," Silberman added.
