Three motions were missing from the GPSA ballot when it opened Monday, and President Christopher Ramirez said the error was caused by a miscommunication between GPSA officials and Information Technology Services.
The missing measures were a no-confidence vote in former Regents President Jamie Koch, a request for an external audit of the University's finances, and a request for the immediate reorganization of the decision-making structures at UNM.
Ramirez said the three items were left off because he misunderstood what was resolved at the previous GPSA council meeting.
"What I had heard anecdotally from someone who was at the special council meeting - I could not attend - was that we voted for just (motions for no-confidence votes in) President Schmidly and Executive Vice President Harris," he said.
The missing items will be placed on a special election ballot in the near future, Ramirez said.
He said about 200 graduate and professional students voted Monday before the error was noticed, which prevented GPSA and ITS from updating the ballot online.
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"We don't know who has voted of the almost 6,000 graduate students," he said. "We couldn't go back and ask them to vote for these three things, so doing a whole new ballot makes the most sense in terms of the mistake and having every graduate student be able to vote for every single referendum."
Lissa Knudsen, GPSA council chairwoman and presidential candidate, said GPSA officials don't know how or when they will set up the special election.
"I think it's really important that we do (have a special election)," she said at a news conference. "The UNM administration needs to know that graduate and professional students are engaged, and the way that we'll do that is by holding these elections and getting the votes."
B. Lee Drake, who is opposing Knudsen in the presidential race, attended the conference and said he researched the legality of having a special election to include the three omitted motions.
"I think it's important for all GPSA to vote in this election," he said. "I totally support holding a special election, which our constitution allows in Article 6, Appendix 3. This lets us know just how important these elections are and how responsible people have to be regarding them."
Ramirez said the miscommunication occurred solely between GPSA and ITS.
"It was an internal mistake," he said. "It was an accident that the three items were left off, and we're going to work with ITS to ensure that we can have graduate and professional students voting on those three other items that aren't currently on the ballot."
Knudsen said she worked hard to have motions on the ballot that allowed graduate and professional students input into the administration's actions.
"Openness and transparency are of the utmost importance to me, and I'm outraged that (the omission of the three motions) was allowed to occur," Knudsen said. "I think it's very important that graduate and professional students still vote because there are items on the ballot that are extremely important. We need to have their voice heard."
Danny Hernandez, uncontested candidate for GPSA council chairman, said he was upset that the ballot was not complete but is glad GPSA will hold a special election.
"I'm disappointed, because I think that graduate students should be able to vote on these items," he said. "And . I'm glad that you guys have found a way to make that happen."
