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News

SGA voting deadline gets extension

Problems with Cougar 1Card office prompt Election Commission 
to push back cutoff to 2 p.m. Friday

by JEB SCHNEIDER
The Daily Cougar

The Election Commission decided Wednesday to extend the voting period in the 2006 Student Government Association general election because of a computer malfunction in the Cougar 1Card office.

The deadline has been extended to 2 p.m. Friday.

The SGA and the commission fielded complaints Wednesday because the general election Web site www.studentelection.uh.edu was not allowing some students to cast votes.

Chief Election Commissioner Glory Ngwolo said some students were able to vote while many were denied access because of glitches in the Cougar 1Card office. 

Ngwolo said the Election Commission was aware of the voting problems early in the day and read a prepared statement from the Election Commission at the SGA meeting Wednesday. 

"(The official general election Web site) was up and running all day without any problems," Ngwolo said. "The issues came from the (Cougar 1Card) office."

Ngwolo said the problems affected many students throughout the day and she hoped the problem would be corrected by Wednesday night. 

"The people who run our Web site never generated any wrong information," Ngwolo said. "There was something wrong in the transfer of information."

The problem originated in the Cougar 1Card office and resulted from "incorrect data," Ngwolo said. 

"I think it was an honest mistake," she said.

It is not yet clear what data was incorrect or what caused the errors. 

"I tried at 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. and was unable to cast my ballot," SGA President David Williams said. 

"Shortly before the SGA meeting (at 7:30 p.m.), four of us were able to cast our ballots successfully," he said.

Election commissioner Stanley Call said the deadline for posting the election results would have to be pushed back to allow time for the votes to be counted.

"The Web site people say they can have the results in two hours, and I would say that all results should be posted by 5 p.m. Friday," Call said.

Ngwolo said that as long as measures are taken to repair the data discrepancy, the preliminary results will be available Friday.

"As of now, we're going forward with this plan of announcing the results at 5 p.m.,Ó she said.

Call said he was unaware of the election calendar deadline that calls for recount results to be available by 5 p.m. Friday.

"All results should be available by 8 p.m. Friday evening," Call said.

Ngwolo said the Election Commission is willing to hear suggestions from students about how to better run the election.

"We're open to suggestions or complaints that anyone might have about the process,Ó Ngwolo said.

Election Commission hours are posted in the SGA offices in the University Center Underground.

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