Voting in the University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCDSU) Executive Election surpassed the total valid poll from the 2020 Elections after just 6 hours. As of 6 pm today, voting statistics released by a spokesperson for UCDSU show that 1,435 students had voted for the next set of sabbatical officers in comparison to 975 the previous year.
The Presidential election has received the greatest number of votes with 1371 students placing a vote in this race. Only 560 students voted in the Graduate Officer elections, currently the lowest turnout for a sabbatical position.
The Agriculture, Food Science & Vet Science College Officer race received the fewest votes so far with just 96 students being willing to vote in the election. The race for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences College Officer has received the most votes of any College Officer election, 560.
Voting Disrupted Again!
Voting in the election may have been impacted as voting was disrupted due to a glitch in the system. Students were unable to vote for College Officer candidates, even though they are registered for the correct college. The glitch was confirmed by the UCDSU on Wednesday morning.
UCDSU Returning Officer Stephen Crosby said, “We are working on fixing the issue, and will extend voting hours accordingly to allow all students to vote”. He added that students will be updated as soon as the issue is resolved. There has been no word yet on when the voting will be extended to, as the issue is still being tended to.
This is not the first time that this same system used by the SU for voting has caused issues, as in the previous election, many Instagram and Facebook votes may not have been counted. Earlier this year the SU claimed that they had resolved the previous year’s issues, however this new issue looks set to cause an equal disruption to online voting.
Hugh Dooley – News Editor
Additional reporting:
Rosie Roberts Kuntz – Assistant News Editor
Stephen Kisbey-Green – Co-Editor
