2004 Associated Students Elections

Who won? Who knows?

Results delayed; election commissioner blames faulty equipment

By Laban Pelz

A faulty ballot-tallying machine suspended AS election results, election commissioner Raylon Madan said Thursday night.

“ We had significant discrepancies between the hand count and that machine,” Madan said, pointing to the scantron-counting device sitting on a table in the USU.

There is currently no way of knowing any winners.

Candidates for AS president, vice president of finance and senatorial positions listened to the commission’s 11:30 p.m. announcement after hours of waiting. The commission’s counting process, aided by the Fresno League of Women Voters, began at 7 p.m.

“ They made a good decision, because they don’t want to give any results that are inaccurate,” presidential candidate Michael Karbassi said.

A hand count showed 1,826 ballots were cast by students in the Wednesday and Thursday elections, but when the same group of ballots was put through the machine, a “much higher number” was indicated, according to Madan.

The commission plans to appropriate a new counting machine, Madan said .

“ We need a good machine,” he said.

The device used Thursday came from campus testing services and was the only such machine in use. The commission said it did not know what was wrong with the tallying device.

The commission first determined 1,826 ballots were cast when it subtracted the number of unused ballots from the number of the original supply, 2,050. Fresno State students cast 1,170 votes the previous year.

“ I’m just happy that many people turned out,” Karbassi said of this year’s turnout.

The earliest election results will be known Monday, Madan said.