Disqualification of vote forces new vote for Ag senator

By NATHAN HATHAWAY

Nearly two weeks after the Associated Students election, the department of agriculture is still without a senator for the 2005-2006 school year.

A tie-breaking vote in the AS senate last week that named Kelly Ansaldo the new senator was thrown out after one of the voting senators was found to be ineligible to vote on the matter.

AS senate and election officials declined to say who the ineligible senator was, but senator at-large Michael Karbassi said the senator was ineligible to vote because of grades.

“One of the senators had a less-than-2.0 GPA,” Karbassi said, “but they didn’t tell us who the senator is.”

In the April 21 AS election, Ansaldo and Nicole Richardson each received 39 votes for the position. After a recount showed the same result, the matter was put to a vote of the current AS senate.

Last week’s 6-5 senate vote that named Ansaldo the new senator becomes a 5-5 tie when the ineligible senator’s vote is discarded. A simple majority of voting senators is needed to break a tie in an AS election.

“They had to drop that vote,” election commission member Stephen Trembley said. “Hence, with that, no candidate got a majority of the senate vote.”

The senate will vote again at Thursday’s AS meeting to name the new agriculture senator.

To initiate the process, a senator will need to make a motion to name either Ansaldo or Richardson as the new agriculture senator. That motion will then be put before the senate for a new vote.