Technical problems plagued the closely contested Feb. 12 election for a new Union Judiciary justice, Student Union Secretary and Chief Elections Commissioner Nelson Rutrick '09 said. Neal Ludevig '08 won with 256 votes. Runner-up Danielle Shmuely '10 received 226 votes, and 48 voters abstained. The elections were marred by a 20-minute period during which the voting Web site (www.bigpulse.com) was inaccessible. The mishap occurred sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight.

Rutrick said that because the shutdown of the Web site "equally affected both candidates," he decided that the election's outcome would be upheld. He explained, however, that this was not a unanimous decision among the five Elections Commissioners, as the vote was 4-1 in favor of letting the results stand.

This is not the first time technical problems have interfered with Union elections. After glitches in 2006, the Union decided to outsource the elections software to a company called BigPulse with the hope of avoiding troubles and inadequacies in the counting of the votes.

Ludevig said that he only ran for UJ because Rutrick had told him that he would be a good candidate for the position. "[I] did not campaign for the first part of the election," Ludevig said.

Asked whether he believed the election was fair and the voting should have continued as it did, Ludevig said he did not see the election as being of any real importance, because he will fill this position for only a month and a half before the entire UJ goes up for election in April.

He added that upon election there is "really not that much to do," and that justice is only required "if some big controversy comes up," such as an advanced administrative scuffle.

Shmuely said she felt "that if you have Internet elections, if there is some kind of malfunction within the 24 hours that the election is happening, then it is not fair." She declined to comment further, saying only that she accepted the ruling regarding the technical mishap and that she hopes to work on behalf of the Student Union in some form in the future.

According to the Student Union Web site, UJ justices have "jurisdiction in disagreements between the Student Union government, government officials, Union organizations, and Union members. The Judiciary also has authority to determine the constitutionality of Union government legislation, decisions, and actions."

When asked if the same voting system would be used for future elections despite recent events, Rutrick said the voting methods will remain unchanged.