ASM can't DoIT

Well, ASM is now officially a complete fiasco.

For the second time in a week, the Student Elections Committee has pulled the plug on the spring Student Council ballot, citing DoIT's inability to run a proper contest. At an emergency meeting tonight – brilliantly simulblogged by Brad over at Letters in Bottles – a representative from DoIT actually advised ASM to proceed with paper ballots.

Please take a second and digest that. A representative of DoIT has advised ASM to proceed with paper ballots. That is roughly tantamount to the editor of a community newspaper advising readers to get their news from a local network affiliate.

Meanwhile, questions abound about voting irregularities, not just in the candidate election (which has now been canceled twice) but also with the two referenda which we thought to be settled Tuesday night. The SEC has not made any decision about re-holding those elections, but with millions of dollars at stake, I am sure the pressure is sizable.

There are further complications, including various ASM by-laws that will now have to be violated if an election is to proceed, not to mention the panoply of issues that likely haven't even been realized yet. As the Badger Herald notes in its lead news article Thursday:

Next week’s Passover and Good Friday holidays could further complicate the issue. Under ASM bylaws, the organization cannot conduct official business on observed holidays. This, technically, would force the election commission to complete the ASM elections by Wednesday night at sunset — when Passover begins.

In four years at the Herald, this may well be the most stunning, ridiculously complicated story I have encountered. And the truly frightening thing is that it is far from being over.