The universitywide student elections for ASMSU and University Apartments’ Council of Residents are postponed until Tuesday.

Computer glitches and conflicts about ballot wording led the All University Election Commission to recommend the postponement of this week’s elections and voiding the undergraduate student government representative elections and referenda. Voting began Tuesday morning.

The election commission’s recommendation was approved by Lee June, vice president for student affairs and services, on Wednesday afternoon.

University Apartments officials also decided to postpone a $1.50 tax referendum. The State News $1 tax referendum has not been postponed.

June made his decision after he met with some commission members Wednesday.

“The goal is to run a fair and equitable election,” June said. “It makes sense to me that it should be postponed.”

No guidelines exist to govern when an election can be postponed. June said in the future there will be a process for handling election documents, which are seen by the election commission, officials at Student Life and the Computer Center.

“Before anything is done, we will require a sign off so we are sure they reviewed it before it goes forth,” June said.

Election problems began with the undergraduate student government after testing on the computer election system was not completed, June said.

Both the undergraduate student government’s Academic and Student assemblies’ representative election results endured computer glitches, which were supposed to be tested before the elections by students. The Computer Center maintains the election software and programming.

University officials said they assumed some students tested the site because no technical errors originally were reported.

Election commission member Eric Smith, who attended Wednesday’s meeting, said the election problems were generated by the lack of Web site testing.

“During referenda years, we need to form the commission earlier,” the international relations senior said. “It was the tester’s responsibility to say this is wrong, and this is wrong, and (the Computer Center) would fix it.”

When polls opened Tuesday, students were allowed to vote for representatives in other colleges, causing both assemblies’ results to be skewed. The number of Academic Assembly candidates was determined by college population instead of the mandated two seats per college. Some ASMSU representatives also say they could not log onto the system.

Election commission members said there wasn’t enough time to review items on the ballot. Some constitutional wording was not approved, causing that area of the ballot to be void, they said. They also were not aware of the constitutional change allowing any tax-paying undergraduate to run for an officer position on Academic Assembly.

No one at the commission meeting Wednesday knew how the constitutional changes that were not approved got to the Computer Center.

Commission chairperson Melanie Olmsted said the election commission was not formed until the middle of February by ASMSU’s Steering Committee, allowing the five-member commission less than a month to review referenda and confirm ASMSU candidates. Elections must take place no later than the 10th week of spring semester.

Olmsted said in the future, the election commission will be formed earlier, but there are no specific guidelines as to when the commission should be formed.

“That way it would allow ample time to get members comfortable with constitutional codes, and there would be a much greater opportunity to structure the process,” Olmsted said.

Matt Clayson, ASMSU Academic Assembly chairperson and Steering Committee member, said the election commission was formed the third week in January, but the commission didn’t meet until the middle of February.

Commission members were chosen among the leaders of governing groups on campus.

“It’s not that hard,” he said. “There’s not that much this commission has to do but write and approve language.”

Clayson said he is frustrated with how separated the election commission is from ASMSU. The biggest elections problem was the miscommunication between the election commission and the Computer Center, he said.

“I partially blame myself for not giving them more guidance,” said Clayson, who supported the postponement and voided elections. “But every time I would offer my advice, they would tell me that I couldn’t tell them what to do.”

University Apartments’ Council of Residents President Jeremy Roark, said the 428 faculty and staff members who pay the tax were not allowed to access the polls.

“We thought it would be better to wait until the problem was fixed so everyone can vote at once,” Roark said.