Epps Tells Class of '81 To Restage CHUL Vote

The Freshman Council elections committee must restage Monday's runoff election for representatives to the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) because it did not know how to count 21 per cent of the ballots cast, Archie C. Epps III, Dean of students, said yesterday.

Epps said the committee should have decided in advance how it would count ballots on which only one of the four candidates was named. The committee asked freshmen to vote for two candidates.

George Y. Hessler '81, a member of the committee, said yesterday that of the 732 ballots cast, 575 named two candidates as requested, 140 named only one candidate, and 17 named two candidates of whom one was a write-in. Write-in candidates were not eligible in the runoff.

Epps said the committee could not decide whether one or two votes should be awarded to a candidate who was named alone on a ballot.

He added that under the rules of the election the ballots could have been counted in three or four different ways, and that therefore no candidate received a clear majority vote.

Passing the Buck

Another member of the committee, Victoria L. Harding '81, said yesterday she brought the matter to Epps' attention after the committee counted the votes Monday night and decided that it could not determine the winners.

Harding said the only persons who know the results of Monday's election are the four committee members who counted the ballots, the moderator of the Freshman Council, and Epps.

The results will not be made public, nor will the candidates themselves be told of them, she added.

Mark Zupan '81 and Donna L. Washington '81, two of the candidates for CHUL, said last night they support Epps' decision to hold the run-off election again.

Epps said he did not know when the next run-off would be held, adding that he and the election committee "will reach a mutually agreed-upon date."