The Supervisor of Elections presented his contingency plan for October’s Student Government elections at Tuesday’s Student Senate meeting.
In the event of an emergency, Supervisor of Elections Stephen Davis will enact his backup plan, which resembles former Supervisor of Elections Toni Megna’s plan from Spring, according to Alligator archives.
If less than half the polling locations are down on either day, students will be directed to the nearest functioning locations.
If more than half the polling locations are down for less than one hour, the voting time will not be made up.
If that amount is closed for more than one hour on Oct. 2, up to three hours of time will be added to the end of that day. If the downtime is more than three hours but less than six, the time will be added to the end of the day on Oct. 3.
If more than half of the locations are down for up to three hours on Oct. 3, the time missed will be added. But if a majority of the polls are down between three and six hours that day, the time will not be made up.
If more than half the polling locations are down for more than six hours, Davis said he will move voting to a later date.
The Supervisor of Elections does not need to present polling locations until 15 days before the election.
Sen. Jordan Ball asked what would happen if someone were registered in the wrong district, which happened during the Fall 2011 elections.
Davis answered that all students are asked to confirm their addresses twice before voting.
After the meeting, Sen. Carly Wilson said Davis’ plan is “lackluster at best.”
She said she’s concerned students won’t be on campus to vote if the polls need to stay open late.
“Anything that goes wrong with the voting system, the students will suffer,” Wilson said.
Senate President Logan Harrison said it’s always difficult to predict what could go wrong.
“I am confident [Davis] is able to address any problems that could arise,” he said.
The plan must be presented to the Senate two weeks before the election cycle starts, according to SG election codes.
However, this was the first Senate meeting of the semester, and the election cycle starts Tuesday.
Contact Samantha Shavell at sshavell@alligator.org.
Supervisor of Elections Stephen Davis presented his contingency plan for the Student Government election Oct. 2 and Oct. 3.
