GRAND JUNCTION — The same year state leaders tried and failed to return mostly to paper ballots to avoid electronic snafus, Mesa State College Associated Student Government election results have been thrown out due to confusion about online voting rules.

The college used online voting as the sole method for voting in April’s election for student body president, vice president and trustee, plus a tuition fee increase.
The student supreme court nullified the election results May 5.

The three-member court decided the ballot unconstitutionally placed write-in candidate names on the ballot. Incumbent Trustee Ashley Mates was the only non-write-in candidate on the ballot this spring, but the names of her two opponents, Susanna Morris and Alexa Williams, were listed on the ballot with the phrase “write-in candidate” written beneath them instead of forcing people to write in their names. The college constitution and bylaws do not directly address how to handle online voting.

Morris won the election with nearly twice the votes Mates got in the 905-ballot election.

Names typed into the write-in category are counted separately using the current online system, which the college typically uses for student surveys. The college election judges, ASG Adviser Deb Hoefer and Mesa State Foundation Director John Marshall decided placing the write-in names on the ballot was permissible because it “was the most efficient way to properly tabulate votes for the write-in candidates based on the manpower and the technology that Mesa State College is currently limited to,” according to a letter sent to Mates the final day of the election, April 23, by ASG Vice President Lisa M. Lind.

Mates, however, believes “a write-in is a write-in.”

“They’re telling me that I’m splitting hairs,” she said. “What’s the difference between typing a name and clicking a box? A lot.”

Morris said “finding common ground” is “something we’ve been lacking” on the board of trustees, and added she believes she could have defeated Mates even without her name printed on the ballot.

“I was basically robbed of an election,” Morris said. “I’m tired and I’m turned off by parts of the process, but the majority of people feel I would have been the best candidate.”

Mates said she hasn’t always agreed with college leaders, but said her number one goal was to represent her fellow students.

“I know I don’t agree with much the board (of trustees) says and much of what (Mesa State President) Tim Foster says, but I didn’t think I was causing too many problems,” she said.

Foster said the election and the court’s decision are an example of “student learning,” which can be “messy sometimes.”

“It’s a classic student thing. Obviously someone’s unhappy that she lost,” he said.

Foster held a meeting with members of ASG two days after the court decided to throw out election results.

“They were asking my opinion and I said, ‘Guys, that’s a pretty extreme result,’” Foster said. “In my mind, you’d have to research, and I don’t think you’d find a court that set aside an election.”

The court had to throw out the results because of the situation, said Student Supreme Court Justice Korie Johnson.

“According to the constitution and bylaws and according to the facts that came out during our hearing, there was no other choice than to declare the election invalid,” Johnson said.

The decision to throw out trustee election results isn’t the first Student Supreme Court decision Morris has dealt with this election. A May 1 Student Supreme Court grievance hearing decided Morris had violated college election ethics by campaigning within 50 feet of a polling station. Morris and friends took personal laptops into student dormitories and encouraged students to use them to vote. The laptops became polling places when students used them to vote, the court ruled. Morris said the incident was a “misunderstanding.”

Morris said she went the write-in route because she decided last minute to give up the swim team, devote her time to politics and turn in her papers. She needed to turn in her intent forms two weeks before the election to be a non-write-in candidate. She turned them in the Friday before the election, in time to be a write-in.

Mates will be a senior next year. Her political experience includes serving as student trustee and second vice chair of the Mesa County Democrats. Morris will be in her fifth year at the college next year. She has not served in an ASG position before but is a political science major and plans to take a legislative internship in the spring, possibly with Republican Sen. Josh Penry of Grand Junction.

Morris said she’s considering being a campaign staff member after college, and has discussed her career plans with Marshall, who ran Republican Bob Beauprez’s unsuccessful 2006 campaign for governor. Marshall advised her to put up posters and hand out flyers when she sought his campaigning advice, said Morris. But he did not encourage or help her to run, she said.

Marshall said the administration has “tracked all that’s happened,” but left the election decisions to the students.

“The idea of student government is that students have the ability to govern themselves,” Marshall said.

ASG President Adam Davenport said, “Certain members of the administration have said some things and made some suggestions ... but the process is for students to handle.”

Newly sworn-in ASG Vice President Ryan Hendershot and Davenport said they don’t agree with the court’s decision to throw out 905 ballots from this election, but they stand by the court’s ultimate decision. Both men expect to spend the summer researching ways to reform election policy to better fit online voting.

“The election policy will go from half a page to several pages long, I think,” Davenport said.

“We are actively looking into software that could be utilized to count (misspelled or illegible) votes,” Hendershot said.

Until a vote in the fall, a figurative interim trustee may serve the college. Hendershot believes Davenport would be the best option for interim.

“I feel like I can carry out the duties of the trustee until we get this settled,” Davenport responded.

Reach Emily Anderson at eanderson@gjfreepress.com.