Please Let Me Vote – Elections Web Site Fails Students
If you visit http://www.sga.fau.edu/elections/ there’s a lot of useless information such as two separate links to a list of the candidates, which is no longer correct since one presidential candidate dropped out. You will also find a draft of SG’s elections statutes.
But what you won’t find is a link to vote. And you won’t find one on SG’s regular Web site either.
If SG cannot provide a link to vote on their own Web sites, how can they possibly be expected to oversee $6.5 million of students’ money?
Smells like a perfect reason to dispute an election. If I were running I’d dispute it based on that fact alone.
I am outraged. I’ve written about SG’s Web site before but this takes the cake, the pie and the whole damn bakery.
Students are being disenfranchised and I cannot wait to find out what excuses Administrators and SG leaders will have for this obvious blunder.
In case you actually want to vote you can click here
But what you won’t find is a link to vote. And you won’t find one on SG’s regular Web site either.
If SG cannot provide a link to vote on their own Web sites, how can they possibly be expected to oversee $6.5 million of students’ money?
Smells like a perfect reason to dispute an election. If I were running I’d dispute it based on that fact alone.
I am outraged. I’ve written about SG’s Web site before but this takes the cake, the pie and the whole damn bakery.
Students are being disenfranchised and I cannot wait to find out what excuses Administrators and SG leaders will have for this obvious blunder.
In case you actually want to vote you can click here
posted by J.P. at
2:22 AM
53 Comments:
Jason, I am surprised you didn't hear about disenfranchisement. I went to vote and it told me I didn't have a ballot. Neat, huh?
the big problem with elections statutes is that the webmaster(s) fomr either cabinets cannot get invovled with elections as it could be construed as a conflict of interest. but of course, no one hires anyone to do the elections website.
now, i dont think is a reason to dispute an election, thats just being silly. emails have been sent out, it is on each candidates website, and on fau.edus web site, which i think is a more important location.
-------
to the poster above: if it really said you didnt have a ballot, then, irm and student affairs is to blame for outsourcing the election software.
outsourcing is always bad when we already had in place a usable and efficient means of voting electronically.
i would like to find out how much this votenet software is costing us to use, the background behidn them, why they choose this place, and can our results be trusted through a third party?
cmon jason, do a story about that.
This is what you get when the Administration interferes with the elections process. It was their their repsonisbility, according to the Statutes, to make sure everything was up and running properly. I know this because I spoke with both the Supervisor of Elections and Dean Bates who were on a completely different page with Dean Bates running the show. If you don't like it complain to him. The Administration is obviously unwilling to work and communicate with SG officials.
o, if you use your fauid + your 00DDYY password; You will get no ballot. But if you put in your last 6 of your social it will work.
I placed in my myfau id and the last six of my social.
"You have no ballot to vote on at this time"
I wonder if the " No ballot at this time " error message was caused by someone already having voted for the student. We all know that there are numerous ways for people on this campus to acquire FAU ID's and SSN's. There should have been a unique password sent to each student.
I know for a fact that giving a unique password to each student was suggested to Student Affairs after they used the FAU ID and birthday combination with the Constitution vote.
the no ballot error occurs when your acct doesnt have a ballot in it. Otherwise you will so (ballot voted for already) make sure you are using the last 6 of your social (security risk? Public computers on breezeway can pick up keyloggers very quickly, but we are talking about the same student government which put their leader's socials up on sga.fau.edu )
I did some research (im the same person from post 2), votenet offers three solutions. an edu solution for k-12 which is $300-$400 a year for a small number of voters.
votenet is:
Total package votes 5000
Cost per vote
@ $0.52 per vote x 5000 $2,600.00
Total Cost $2,600.00
with 5000 elegible voters being the maximum for thier votenet service.
then thier is thier enterprise solution, which doesnt have pricing details unless you contact them.
jason - im going to be contacting you regarding a story that i belive should be printed (not regarding this). i will be in contact with you shortly.
it took me a while to find the voting page and even longer to actually vote. my co-worker had to show me what to do. if i had this much trouble, i know there are many others experiencing the same difficulties. this is why students don't vote. it's not apathy. it's not a hassle. it's a headache.
The voting page was a little confusing.
Luckily I did it in the Breezeway and someone from Student Affairs was there to walk me through it.
Jenna,
If the party in power(your buddies) hadnt botched things so badly we wouldnt be in this mess.
the fact is all that the admin has to do to fix the problem this time, is put some advertising up, reload the voting web page and do it again next week...if someone contests.
If I were you id be more concerned about the fact that House of Reps elections went completely uncontested and half the seats went unfilled. The students have lost faith in the system.
The fact is if the fau boca students really had a choice boca student government would have been completely disbanded. You should THANK the administration for trying to restore your credibility even if they make mistakes.
"The fact is if the fau boca students really had a choice boca student government would have been completely disbanded."
So true.
Actually, it was juat a handful of people that needed to be removed -- some of the people there actually do good work.
do you think there will be another contestation? this election has been another embarrassment.. we should scrap this election and do it right, once and for all.. that way there is no room for argument or doubt.. if we don't fix it now, then the dangerous pattern of precedent will continue, well after we've graduated..
The fact is that both sides had a completely fair shot at winning this thing. Both parties had the same odds to overcome so it was fair. All students were sent the link to their FAU e-mail account. Just because there was not a link on the SG website to the voting site does not mean that there should be another election. Would this be something controlled by the current Boca webmaster maybe employed by the Boca Governor? No more excuses, win or lose I will not be contesting this election and if the Movement party had any integrity they would not either. (not insinuating that they don't) Both parties had equal access to get out the vote and I think that the true student opinion will show with the final vote count.
gary, read the posts above you. the webmasters are not supposed to touch the elections website once elecitons are underway. theres no problem with making a template for the elections supervisor to use, but the elections supervisor or commisioners must put up the content themselves.
gary - that should have read: "read the second post from the top." not "read the post above you." your question has already been answered.
The FTP Site to update the sga/elections webpage was down and the site could not have been amendended.
Any problems with this election would hurt either side equally and are not grounds for contestation.
As far as disenfranchisement, the students at FAU, an institute of higher education, should have the common sense to actually read the emails they were sent by administration before clicking the link, trying to vote, and complaining.
In addition, the SGA and Elections website has very low traffic for many reasons. Most students don't even know about the elections site. The link on FAU's homepage and the multiple emails sent by administration was enough.
Jason is outraged about the SG site, but his own "Special UP Elections page" (http://www.universitypressonline.com/elections), which reads "The UP's special section on SG's elections. Check back frequently for news about the elections." hasn't been updated since March 14th.
Hello, pot? This is the kettle.
Senate Minutes! i'm giving up on them.
I see what you are saying, but this should have been made available prior to the election so that someone that was not the most computer literate could have just made the change when necessary, or could have put it up before the election. Either way it is not enough of a reason to overturn the election.
From the latest story:
"Minutes after finding out he lost, Torres responded with: “The numbers don’t add up. There’s no way.” His running mate Rocky Joarder shook his head and echoed those thoughts."
Why don't the numbers add up?
You know, Texeira has won not one, but TWO elections. He better get the honor due him this time.
It's over. Talk about close. If Joyner hadn't dropped out there might have been a run-off again.
This close of an election hardly shows a mandate for one side or the other. Hopefully everyone who will remain in SG will learn to work together.
Why didnt the numbers add up?
Because they lost again???
The fact that almost 1800 students voted for the two candidates means students were able to find the ballot.
Was Joyners name still on the ballot??? If his name was still on the ballot then students still could vote for him regardless of whether he withdrew and those votes must be counted in the totals in determining whether Tony got 50%+1.
Haha.
Rocky said the same thing to me last election shortly after he found out Tony won the first time. Then he figured out a way to manipulate and threaten others into having a new run-off election and he finally got the result he wanted. I will not put it past him doing it again this time.
26 votes is a pretty close call. Torres did a lot better than I thought he would do.
Congratulations Tony, I think you have deserved your chance to change SGA. I think Jarret is also a good fit for governor. At least, we can have some sort of balance of powers.
Time to write about security flaws on this election's practices. Will number and discuss later, Indexing cause of max length issues. 1. Use of wifi internet for voting 2. Use of public computers 3. Use of sensitive info to vote ....
1. Having the full range of the internet on the election computers can cause many problems. We are not all computer experts but will all know how wifi is not secure. Anyone with half a brain can know how to sniff packets. (hell i just did this one for fun of it, voting website used ssl which would take forever to crack) Nuff said.
2. Public computers are very dangerous to use. Many people don't understand how easy it is to replace a website on a computer. Windows comes with a file called hosts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file
for more info. What one can do is access the computer for under 30 secs and make it go to their home made fake website. Collect info from student ( fauid and (last 6 of social why the hell did admin. chose this as password?)) Easy way to collect votes.
3. Social Security numbers are made of 3 main parts (common sense). The amazing part is admin choose the last 6 which are the most random of the bunch. First 3 can be guessed by location of school. Majority who voted were born in Florida. Out of that majority, most were born in 84-87 which would give them a 59* as their first 3 digits. fauid can be used to find out address+phone. I encourage the admin to change for next time.
I wonder how long Gary is gunna be around this time before he thinks he is getting screwed over again?
Then we get to watch him switch sides (for the third time), and start opening his mouth about everything anyone has ever confided with him!
Wow... what a close race.
All this talk about security breaches and SG not having a link is extremely petty (much like FAU students complaining that they have to walk from HPT to the SU without a ride from Nightowls) and to contest this election would bring much more unnecessary public negativity to FAU.
The game's over. It was fair. Let's bury the hatchet and move on to make this a better university for everyone.
Some of these articles are founded only in alterior motives. If this is what you think journalism is, apply for a job at the Post.
I agree, I may have not voted for who won, but I am hoping there is no contest. It will make our school look horrible.
regarding - "I wonder how long Gary is gunna be around this time before he thinks he is getting screwed over again?
Then we get to watch him switch sides (for the third time), and start opening his mouth about everything anyone has ever confided with him!"
This is an interesting post, with horrible grammar. It is obviously motivated by people who just lost another election. Unfortunately this time - They do not have the people in the appropriate positions to throw this election out.
I have never changed sides, I created along with many other concerned students - a team of individuals who wanted to work for the students rather than to pad their own pockets or cause controversy.
I have been a loyal person to anyone worth that loyalty. I graduate this coming year in the average graduation time frame; I am not going to derail my future to stick around student government. I wish the best of luck to the student leaders still involved as I think you were moving in the right direction.
"All this talk about security breaches and SG not having a link is extremely petty (much like FAU students complaining that they have to walk from HPT to the SU without a ride from Nightowls) and to contest this election would bring much more unnecessary public negativity to FAU."
Actually, no, its not petty to think that internet security is something that should be slacked upon.
IRM has been using a very secure and proven method of doing online voting for the past, 4 or 5 years. Now we are going with an outsourced voting system, where we as students cannot even peer review the code, nor do we know how much money had been spent on this system, to replace a system made by non biased fau employees that was already proven reliable.
This just seems to be very wasteful and ignorant of student affairs.
"I have never changed sides, I created along with many other concerned students - a team of individuals who wanted to work for the students rather than to pad their own pockets or cause controversy."
To see Gary say he doesn't want to create controversy makes me think of many instances in the Senate...
When he stood at open forum yelling at the Speaker "I will sue you! I will sue you!"
When he came into Senate with a mis-spelled banner urging senators to impeach themselves, refusing to leave until he was escorted out by an FAU police officer.
When he came in as a puppet for SA in attempts to make the senate a "circus" and thus be shut down by SA. Yes, we all saw the hand signals Bardill was giving you.
The numerous times he resigned from the senate as some kind of statement about the current leadership.
The time he stood at open forum and called all house-elected senators "fake", and refused to answer their questions.
Oh yes, believe Gary Goldberg when he says he never wanted to create controversy.
gotta love how Gary was also an in-house elected senator at one point.
guess he decided to impeach himself all those times.
you know, when people get upset at how things are done in politics, they usually try to run for a position to get their opinion heard and actually have some power to make the changes necessary through the proper channels.
what does gary do? resigns from his position of power, because he thinks NOT having a vote on the senate is more powerful than having a vote. seems like bizarro logic to me.
but then again, most of what he does is bizarre to begin with, every time someone doesn't agree with him he seems to throw a temper tantrum.
Anonymous, why don’t lend yourself some credibility and state your identity. I love how people have no integrity for the claims they throw around.
Why would I have stayed on an administration which I did not have a say? I had been silenced in a way that did not follow Roberts’ rules of order - but because I was the minority and the mindless SG puppets did not care about the lack of liberty in the situation. In fact, now far more than the majority of them have come and apologized to me by now.
It did not make sense for me to stay in an environment that was completely negative. I put my energy into better use elsewhere on campus. And during election time I did just as I said I would, I helped my friends get into office. I helped hold those accountable who created this environment in SG.
You can call me bizarre if you would like, when I consider the source I would rather be called bizarre than to be like you whoever you may be. I have seen Raki, Jared, Mike Hallenstien, Pete Torres, and others you are obviously involved with having "temper tantrums" some of them causing the police to be called. Not to mention how Raki loves to call the police every time there is a disagreement.
I am probably very normal in comparison to you; normal enough that the campaign that I managed was more successful than yours. I will take bizarre any day if it leads to defeating you and yours.
It is also hilarious how you conspiracy theorists think that student affairs had a goal to shut you down. How many chances did they give you to follow the rules? Too many is the answer. Maybe if you had not acted so immorally and had actually followed the SG rules, (instead of fostering the theft of funds and misuse of SG programs) the old constitution would still be standing today. And that I was working with them on that is even more hilarious. Kirk Murray - Gone and his name tarnished. Rakibur Joarder - looking for employment. It seems that your efforts lead to one place, the unemployment line.
It's funny that Gary thinks the only people who could possibly be critical of him are lapdogs of the current leadership. The world is not so black-and-white as them-or-us thinking makes it. He's trying to turn this into a party issue when Movement and Reform haven't even been mentioned.
Gary, you have made a buffoon out of yourself in some of the most public ways available, short of going on national TV and screaming "My first amendment rights are being infringed by not being able to swear on TV!". Students who do not support either side regard you with amusement and contempt, and it has nothing to do with the party you affiliate yourself with.
Your comments do not bother me one bit. I consider you ignorant and do not even care. I disagree with your comments, and I know many others do as well. I’m sure there are plenty that hate me, and that is fine by me. How mature is it to sit here on a forum and attempt to insult me about matters of which you have no real knowledge? I believe in civic engagement, and protest to make students aware of real issues, which seems to be a lost art. It is at least something that is above you. I have many supporters and friends, and quite frankly could not care less. My guess is that your refusal to identify yourself is due to your own lack of appeal. Good luck to the new administration!
"Your comments do not bother me one bit."
Then why do you keep responding?
"How mature is it to sit here on a forum and attempt to insult me about matters of which you have no real knowledge?"
You tell me; you're the one telling 'anonymous' he is ignorant and has no appeal.
"I have many supporters and friends, and quite frankly could not care less."
See above. Posting "I don't care" before continuing an argument is hypocritical, even bizarre behavior.
I don't see how talking about your bizarre personality quirks has anything to do with you thinking that myself and others do not udnerstand how to hold a protest.
warped logic again.
and personally, I think this is one of the best places to criticize and complain. not only does this post get google cached, which means its archived for all to see, it also means that their is a very slim chance that my posts will be edited, seeing as it is hosted on an off site server.
and im glad you think I don't have knowledge of whats going on. keep your head in the sand gary.
your already going into tantrum mode, throwing out insults and making claims because something isnt going your way.
Dang, you keep getting funnier and funnier. You seem to be the one who is quite frustrated. Your use of "your" was incorrect. It should have been the contraction "you're" as in the combination of the words you and are. I guess we can rule you out as an English major.
The opinions of those who are not friends of mine does not bother me one bit. Keep the accusations coming, I fail to see how a posting of an election website failure which I was not even a candidate in turned the direction it has, obviously your envy of me. I am not even going to justify your further stupidity with a response.
Gary said, "I believe in civic engagement, and protest to make students aware of real issues, which seems to be a lost art."
So Gary believes in 'an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent, often in opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid' (dictionary.com) when it comes to raising awareness of student issues. Go for it Gary. You're such an unbelievable moron.
yep. you got me gary. im not an english student. I thought that was evident by how i have not been capitalizing my "I"s, using im instead of I'm, and i havent been capitalizing your name or any other names as well. So hats off to you for your clever deduction that i am in fact, NOT, an english major.
you may not have been a candidate for this years election, but you are an open member and supporter of the reform campaign, which means that your actions are not unbiased and unaccountable as a third party.
So yes, prepare for more criticism.
...and try to calm down and be a little more professonal. Stop throwing your riduculous tantrums every time you disagree with someone. There are better ways to handle a situation than screaming and throwing a fit. You were in the Army were you not? I suspect that self discipline would have been the first thing you would have learned. And, no Gary, I am not insulting your service to this great country so when you reply to this comment...and the others about you...try write like a mature adult without insults or other childish gestures. That is all.
Again there is no good information as to why I am a moron. You are the one who has been throwing out the insults, not me. When was the last time that I had one of these "tantrums" as you claim? Criticism of your writing is not an insult. Now I will insult you - you are the moron. My control is just fine. My justification of why I protested still makes sense to anyone with a moderate ability to reason. Nobody listened, so I tried to stir up some attention to the issues that mattered to me and many other students who lost their budgets. Agree or disagree, it worked in the end. The outcome of it is a new constitution and better administration involvement as well as a new budget process. I fail to see how I am so moronic, considering I got what I want. Yes I was not the only cause, but my situation made the despotism in SG obvious.
Remember this - The elephants do not mind the ants as they walk on them. You are an ant – out of your displeasure for life, lack of friends, relationships, and intellect sit on internet forums and attempt to hurt peoples feelings without the reason to. Does it make you feel better? In the end you are still the guy going back and forth between attacking me and masturbating to internet porn because you are such an awkward person who cannot find someone in this world with your strange sense of negativity. But what a tough guy you are! Keep wasting your life hating me. I will be out enjoying life and basking in the latest victory.
Dance, puppet! Dance!
Well Rocky is at it again. As if he weren't pleased enough with the repercussions from last years bogus contestation he has decided to give the already tiresome FAU student body and administrators some more.
Rocky,
You are a sad and pathetic person. The fact remains that you will never be President of anything other than the hair club for men. I say these mean things because this is the language that you understand. If I had the chance I would ask your parents why they did such a horrible of job raising you. Maybe they are pieces of shit and purposefully raised you in their likeness. Who knows?
I hope that you move on with your life; if not for our (the student's) sake then for your own.
Tony Arserio,
Its too bad that Rocky and Jared aren't going to be able to keep their promise by making you a Senator. Was spreading those lies about Tony on this website worth loosing the respect of a majority of your fellow Representatives just for a chance to be Rocky's bitch? You're as patheitc as Rocky. Wait... I take that back. You are more pathetic. At least Rocky has some intelligence, you are nothing but an unoriginal tool. Your parents are fuck-ups too. You are a coward. Will you deny posting libel against Tony and / or asking to be promised a position as Senator? You have no stugots! Loser.
Jared,
I thought you had a soul. I thought that you may have been different, but you are not. You have not only let Rocky drag you down by running with him, but now you have sunk with him into a totally deplorable state of being. You belong nowhere near SG sir. You are a childminded and selfish bitch.
Now here is why the "numbers didn't add up"...
Note to the Movement Party:
When most of your supporters only support your Governor its hard to win. CSA, BSU, Konbit, etc. all voted for Matt Jarrett and for Tony & Abe. These groups split the ticket. Why were there so many splitters amongst you? The blame belongs mostly to Rocky but also to Areserio for bringing up false accusations against Tony and turning off your own base. Good.
"Students were dis-enfranchised from voting"??
Like you give a shit!? If you would have won you wouldn't have contested this. Besides, this is a mute point since this particular problem handicapped both teams equally.
Give it up.
The students see through you. You haven't a leg to stand on and everyone knows it. I say again, your parents should all apologize to the school and to the students. They have raised unethical self-indulged sociopaths and should have to answer for their crime.
May god have mercy on your... bad haircuts.
i'm just a average student checking out the blogs but you guys really need to be more mature and grow up. this is ridiculous and i certainly hope nobody will attack me for saying this. can't we all just get along?
guys, sorry for acting like a complete asshole. i know i let my temper get the better of me sometimes and i'm seeing someone to get that under control. until then i will continue to 'protest student concerns'.....well i actually checked out dictionary.com and realized that when i said i was protesting student concerns i was actually going against student concerns.oh well. my bad. guess in trying to sound smart i made myself look like a jackass. i'll stick to small words from now on.
Gotta watch those temper tantrums Gary, or you'll keep getting escorted out of buildings by FAU PD.
posting claiming to be me is completely unethical even with your apparent sarcasm. Get a life and leave me alone. I am not the issue, the election is. I repost from the other blog page -
That's gross, this is getting way unprofessional.
Good job! You provoked me into posting on the blog! WOO! That deserves a prize. Outbursts and temper tantrums, this is all comical. You mention what I have done in the past without the context that they occurred which is another fallacy that you love to use so much. I have long forgotten these things - you should too. Protesting for students concerns is a reasonable statement, Raki was silencing me while I was attempting to voice concerns - I protested. Student clubs got zero funded, many were upset, I protested. Josh Bratt lied to me about a position that he had promised me(which I had earned), I got upset but got over it. What's so hard to get about that? What is even more interesting is that you cannot handle a little criticism on the other side, so you attempt to attack the person with an opposing opinion excessively enough that their dissenting opinion goes away. You are the one with the irrational arguments. Stick to the issue, which has nothing to do with me. It is what is going on with this election. Nobody cares what you think of me. You are obviously obsessed with me, writing about me night, morning, and day because I left the blog for a couple of days. You are obviously just a very angry person, not me. I am quite normal, and content with life. People around SG have displayed emotions similar to mine, and many of them are quick to call the police at the first sign of emotion. Nobody cares. The police laughed not at me, but at the people who need them present in order to run a meeting. Give it up, you lost your creditability long ago.
cant lose credibility when your ANONYMOUS (and fabulous!).
Gary, yesterday was april 1st. april fools day. and you made yourself look like a fool by not realizing and then replying to an obviously fake post that was stated by you.
See, heres the thing. We are bored college students, and we have nothing better to do than watch you go on your tantrums. it amuses me.
ive seen you do so many stupid things at the senate meetings, i laughed so much I almost hurt. I was so embarrassed to be around the meetings because of the scenes you were causing and the humiliation you were causing yourself.
and you keep posting! what takes me 5 seconds to post, gives me hours of enjoyment. and i am very content with my life, this is just icing on the cake.
cmon gary, give me some more entertainment!!!!! PLEASE!!! i need it. i need you to cause a scene. i know you have a couple more in you before you graduate! maybe you can protest the graduation ceremonies because you wont be the first to walk. or because you cant get enough tickets.
i want to see what else you can mess up with your own bizarre logic.
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