About 500 students were sent e-mails Wednesday morning urging them to recast their votes in the Student Senate elections.

Their votes were cleared after a technical problem miscategorized candidates on the official ballot.

On the ballot, those running for International Senator were shown as running for Governing Board and those running for Governing Board were shown to be running for the Student Media Company Board.

Sophomore Peter Goldschmidt, who is a member of The Daily Campus staff and is the only candidate running for the Student Media Company Board, was listed correctly on the ballot.

Senate Membership Chair Jack Benage said the problem was recognized Tuesday night when the polls opened at midnight but could not be fixed until Wednesday morning because the Information Technology Services staff was unavailable at the time. The incorrect ballot remained online for about eight or nine hours.

To make sure the election was fair, Benage said the only option was to clear out everyone’s ballots and have them re-vote. He does not expect any more problems.

Student Senate has extended the voting period to accommodate those whose votes were cleared. Instead of ending at 7 p.m. on Thursday, voting will end at 11:59 p.m.

Students may vote by going online to smu.edu/elections.