This spring's Marquette Student Government primary election saw no technological errors in its online voting system, a brand new software package purchased as a result of the invalidation of the spring 2004 primary.

The primary also had the lowest number of invalid votes in the six years MUSG has been tracking this information, according to Nicole Garland, MUSG communications vice president.

Of the total 2,062 votes, 1.2 percent, or 25 votes, were invalid, said Brad Held, MUSG elections coordinator. The voters were either not full-time undergraduate students or had voted twice.

The spring 2004 primary election for MUSG president and executive vice president was invalidated after it was discovered that the online voting system did not count 540 votes, Garland said.

The error was caused by an overload on the online voting system. When multiple people submitted their votes at the same time, the system would record one vote and drop the others.

Held said the university purchased a new software package in time for the spring 2005 elections. He said the software is meant for surveys, so it can be used by other organizations or departments besides MUSG.

The new software cuts down on invalid votes in the log-in process. Held said students must use their eMarq username and password for the ballot to appear on their computer screen. The previous software relied on students inputting their MUID number and personal access code, which students often mistyped without realizing it.

The spring 2004 primary was reconducted the following week on a Scantron ballot, Held said.

Scantron ballots were not any better than the old software for protecting against invalid votes — in spring 2004's final election, 4.7 percent of the votes were ruled invalid to due to ineligible voters or blank or incomplete MUID numbers, Held said.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 17 2005.