UC VP Disavows E-Mail Alleging Voting Fraud, While E-Mail Contributor Insists VP ‘Clicked Send’

Behind the confusion and controversy swirling around yesterday’s unresolved Undergraduate Council elections remains an e-mail sent last night from the UC president’s e-mail account bearing the signature of UC Vice President Kia J. McLeod ’10 suggesting that vice presidential candidate Eric N. Hysen ’11 may have had access to voting software.

The e-mail was one of the key flashpoints in a night that featured the decertification of the UC election results in response to concerns about vote-tampering and the subsequent resignation of three representatives of the seven-member election commission, which regulates the UC elections.

Though McLeod explicitly denied sending the e-mail, former Student Affairs Committee Chair Tamar Holoshitz ’10, who said she was involved in crafting the e-mail, told The Crimson at 4:30 this morning that McLeod did send the e-mail.

“She read it out loud four times,” Holoshitz said. “She clicked send.”

The e-mail, which was sent to the UC’s open e-mail list, stated that Hysen may have been able to log in to the software that tracks the results of UC elections after receiving the necessary passwords from former UC Vice President Randall S. Sarafa ’09 upon Sarafa’s graduation.

The e-mail added that upon receiving the concern, former Election Commission Chair Brad A. Seiler ’10 had originally reassured EC members that they would all receive access to voting results in order to prevent any sort of tampering from going unnoticed. He failed to deliver on that assurance, the e-mail added.

It also stated that Hysen, prior to the election, had handled applications to the Election Commission, including that of Seiler.

Less than an hour later, McLeod sent out another e-mail from her personal e-mail account in which she denied drafting the much-discussed message.

In an interview with The Crimson early this morning, she said of the e-mail, “It was an inappropriate use of Eric Hysen’s and my name, and it should be completely disregarded.”

She added that she believed that John F. Bowman ’11 and Hysen—the winners of the election according to the decertified figures released by the Commission—took the top spot “fairly and honestly.”

Holoshitz said this morning that she stood behind the allegations presented in the original e-mail apparently signed by McLeod.

“Everything in that e-mail was factual,” she said.

McLeod could not be reached to comment on Holoshitz’s claims early this morning.

Hysen characterized the controversial e-mail as a personal attack and flatly denied any impropriety.

“The idea that I would, after spending three years on the UC, spending as much time as I have working to improve the institution that is the UC, tamper with the results is so ridiculous,” Hysen said.

Seiler, who resigned in protest of the decertification, said he remained confident that the election results were not compromised.

Seiler admitted that it was hypothetically possible for Hysen to have accessed and changed the database containing the votes, but he said that two separate mechanisms logging activity on the database showed that the database had not been tampered with.

Sarafa, who worked with the database last year, said that Hysen could not have changed the outcome even if he had access.

“It is nearly impossible to in any way use the software to alter the results of the election,” Sarafa said. “I’m sure that the candidates know that campaigning is a more efficient way of using their time than trying to manipulate the results of the elections.”

—Staff writer Melody Y. Hu can be reached at melodyhu@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Eric P. Newcomer can be reached at newcomer@fas.harvard.edu.