The Student Government Association is continuing to investigate election complaints.
Arsalan Razakazi, chief election commissioner for SGA, said two students have come forward since elections began Feb. 27 — one of which The Daily Cougar reported on Thursday.
“When people vote, we can’t tell who they voted for — it’s a privacy issue,” Razakazi said. “We don’t know that. Nobody knows that. The computer does that itself because we want students’ privacy to be there.”
Razakazi said there were no cameras to reference where the students said they were approached, so he was unable to identify the people asking students to sign a petition.
Because similar fraudulent practices occured in last year’s elections, Razakazi said he added more security measures to voting by asking for students’ last names.
“The people who do fraudulent activities always have one thing up on us. You change something this year, they change their game. As election commissioner, you are more reactive than proactive,” he said. “As proactive as I want to be… the thing is we’re only three people. We’re students first and then SGA later on. It’s hard to maintain 40,000 students out there. It only takes one bad apple.”
Razakazi said students should protect themselves and their voting rights by never giving out their PeopleSoft ID numbers or birth dates to other students, whether it be for a petition or some other matter.
“I’m still looking into it — even if it’s one person. I’m still going to be looking into it because to me, when somebody does voter fraud like that it’s taking away someone else’s right,” Razakazi said.
The investigation is on-going and Razakazi will continue to take complaints until 7 p.m. today. To file a complaint, email Razakazi at [email protected].
