Student Senate declared last week’s first-year Senate elections invalid after discovering evidence of 90 fraudulent votes.
A number of the fraudulent votes were credited to students who reported that they never voted in the election, Senate officials said. The officials said it is possible that these students’ identities were used without their permission.
The fraud was detected by SMU webmaster and coordinator of Student Senate elections Aren Cambre late Friday morning. The online votes, placed from two off-campus computers, were cast in alphabetical order over a three-hour time period. Many of the votes were cast within 20 seconds of each other, officials said.
“That evidence automatically raised red flags,” said Arlene Manthey, director of Student Affairs.
Not all of the votes in question were cast for the same person, the officials said, but 41 of the fraudulent ballots were identical.
It is not clear whether any of the winners won because of the mass voting.
“All I can tell you is that the results of the election, in totality, were compromised,” said membership committee chairwoman Lyndsey Hummert.
Senate officials said they knew which candidates received fraudulent votes but would not give their names.
The fraudulent votes account for 15 percent of the approximately 600 total votes cast in the election.
Senate, which held an emergency meeting Sunday night, called a special election for Sept. 25 and 26. The ballot includes all offices on the original ballot: one class president seat, five senator seats and 15 Class Council seats.
“I called a special election from the membership committee to ensure that the first-year voice is heard and there is a fair and valid election process,” said Student Body President Dustin Odham.
All candidates who ran in the previous election and attended a mandatory candidate meeting Monday night are eligible to run. For the special election, campaigning is prohibited, and materials from the previous election cannot be used. These new rules were passed Sunday night for this special election.
“We feel it would be in their best interest to hold the new elections as soon as possible,” Hummert said. “The first-year class needs leadership.”
Several first-years who were elected last week did not return calls seeking comment.
There are no suspects, but the matter will be referred to Judicial Affairs. The fraud violates the Student Code of Conduct and the Honor Code. If individuals are identified, they could be charged with infractions that include dishonesty, misuse of electronic media, interference with a university activity and irresponsible conduct.
“I would very much like to find the person(s) responsible and adjudicate the matter appropriately through our judicial system,” Jennifer Passow, assistant dean of Student Life and coordinator of Student Judicial Programs, said in an e-mail interview. “All SMU students should be held to the same high standards, and this matter should be no different.”
To decrease the likelihood of voter fraud, Senate has tightened the rules for voting in the special election. Students must access the site on campus, and a disclaimer on the voting screen states that legal action will be taken against those who cast fraudulent votes.
This election is the first time since online voting started in 1997 that voting fraud has been reported.
“It’s a sad state of affairs that someone would do something like this,” said Jim Caswell, vice president of Student Affairs. “The university will take all the steps that it can to find the responsible party and deal with that person or persons accordingly.”
