In accordance with UTSU’s by-laws requiring one meeting per term at UTM, the April 2 meeting took place at the campus’ Student Centre.
Last month’s election results were ratified; and other housekeeping tasks included annually adjusting student levies to meet the economy’s consumer price index.
Innis College Student Society president Mike Maher, who ran unsuccessfully as Change’s VP internal, presented a report entitled “An Analysis of the Final Report of the Chief Returning Officer for the Spring 2009 UTSU Election” produced by members of the ICSS.
The report alleged CRO Lydia Treadwell’s report tallying student votes had a number of irregularities and improbabilities.
Of note were more Trinity College students voting at the Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building than the much closer Gerald Larkin Building, as well as more UTM students voting at St. George than their own campus.
The report also challenged the number of votes attributed to specific locations and suggested changes that would make the vote amounts fit patterns of previous years.
“We weren’t discounting the results per se, but we thought the process was skewed,” said Change slate campaign manager Praan Misir. “It’s really improbable that these are the results when you consider past elections.”
UTSU VP external Dave Scrivener disagreed, describing the report as “trying to undermine the election’s validity by mathematical hackjob.”
“I think there was definitely a sense of frustration [among the Board of Directors],” said Scrivener, who cited that the report publishers did not try to appeal the election results until the deadline had been reached and a month had passed.
“I think it’s more or less just them grasping at straws to illegitimate an election they lost. Students should be expecting better.”
Treadwell was out –of town and could not be reached for comment.
The report, which has been downloaded over 100 times, can be found at http://innisicss.com
