The status of a proposed Student Council amendment included on the spring election ballot earlier this month remains a topic of confusion.
The amendment, which would extend voting rights to the First Year Council President and the Transfer Student Liaison, received 3,640 "yes" votes and 1,296 "no" votes. Of the 4,936 students who cast a vote for the referendum, 73.7 percent voted in favor of its ratification.
Council Executive Vice President Rebeen Pasha said he told Council members Tuesday night that the amendment failed to garner a required two-thirds majority of the entire student population that participated in the elections.
Pasha contends that since 3,640 out of the total 6,318 election participants voted in favor of passing the amendment, it failed to be ratified because it only garnered 57.6 percent of the total vote. Pasha said students who abstained from voting on the referendum implicitly voted against its ratification.
University Board of Elections Chair Brian Cook confirmed that 6,318 students accessed ballots during the election.
Council Vice President for Administration Will Sowers said no Council member can definitively say whether the amendment was ratified, adding that Council executives likely will discuss the matter later this week.
According to Council's constitution, proposed amendments "shall be ratified if two-thirds of those voting vote in favor of the amendment during the regular Council election."
"Past precedent has generally said that 'those voting' constitutes persons voting in an individual [proposal], not in the overall election," Sowers said.
Pasha said Sowers' interpretation was constitutionally incorrect.
"It needs a two-thirds vote of all those who voted in the election, not just the question," Pasha said.
Cook stressed that the UBE does not play a role in interpreting the elements of Council's constitution.
"In reporting the results to Student Council, we are making absolutely no judgments in how to interpret Student Council's constitution," Cook said. "That is a matter for Student Council's Rules and Ethics Board."
First Year Council President Greg Jackson, Jr. said he perceived that the amendment has been ratified and was surprised by Pasha's claim that the vote did not receive a two-thirds majority.
"When you abstain you make a decision to not take a stand on the issue," Jackson said. "My perception of voting is marking yes or no."
Cook maintained that the election results as reported on the UBE Web site were accurate. He added that the ballots did not explicitly make abstention a choice -- students could simply move onward to the next ballot question without marking a yes or no.
Sowers suggested that the outcome of voting on the amendment can be determined by an appeal questioning its legality under Council's constitution.
"Should the First Year Council choose to appeal to the Rules and Ethics Board, they have grounds on the different interpretations of what constitutes a vote and an abstention," Sowers said.
Pasha said determining the necessary standing for a person to file an appeal would be difficult.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's just a matter of what the constitution says," Pasha said. "It's settled."
Pasha said in the past that his office has clarified similar controversies.
"Traditionally it is the EVP's role to make sure that procedures are constitutional," Pasha said. "But this is not a question of making precedence or interpretation -- it's a question of following what's written."
Jackson said he plans to wait until a discussion of the results has taken place before deciding whether or to file an appeal.
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