The debacle over who will be ASUAF's president next year hasn't slowed down in recent weeks, even with a winner being declared by the new elections board.

The complicated presidential election included the decisions of two election boards and an election review council. On Sunday the senate was presented with a petition with over 400 signatures that was circulated by students requesting a second election. But accepting the petition required a two-thirds vote of the senate to over-ride the election manual bylines, which the measure did not receive. Bureaucratic procedure and institutional rules have further compounded the confusion surrounding the election.

Whether democracy has or has not been served is open to interpretation.

The newly appointed ASUAF elections board ruled late Wednesday night, Apr. 28, to disqualify presidential candidate Brandon Maitlen from the election and give the presidency to incumbent Thom Walker. During the Apr. 21 and 22 election Maitlen received 43 more votes than Walker. The board voted in favor of Walker's complaint that Brandon Maitlen used "undue influence" to sway voters during a elections day barbecue on Apr. 21. The board ruled 5-0 that Maitlen's event constituted undue influence, and then voted 3-2 to disqualify him as a candidate.

Students commented strongly for both candidates' cases before the meeting. Original Election Chair head Veronica Young, and former elections board member Joe Blanchard both expressed their concern for the validity of the previous board's ruling, and requested that the new board allow the election results to stand.

"I'm not sure if we acted in the best interest of the students or democracy (with our original ruling)," Young said.

Walker re-filed his complaint to the new board, citing the influence free food, especially on the day of an election, has on hungry students. He questioned Maitlen's intentions in sponsoring the event, saying the influence of "cooking four hundred hamburgers on the day of the election are not pure."

 Maitlen countered, in his defense, that presidential candidate Silas Hoffman held a "similar event on an election day last year," which included free food, a live band, and using a P.A. system to tell people neutrally to get out and vote.

The elections board that first heard Walker's complaint called for a new election. Maitlen was not satisfied with the decision to hold a second election and filed a complaint against the election board. In accordance with ASUAF election bylaws, the election review council dissolved the board and a new election board was formed to consider the original complaint. The new board consists of Senators Amy Rodman and Melissa Taakaze, who were appointed by the Senate, and Chair Pat McKenna, Rachel Kahn, and Josh Jackson, who were appointed by vice-president Lilly Capell.

All five board members agreed that Maitlen's election-day activities constituted undue influence on the election results. However, faced with little time before the end of the school year to organize a new election, the new board decided to disqualify Maitlen from the race.

Election rules state the board's ruling is final, but a student group that has organized a petition signed by 451 students to create a new presidential election and change how elections are held are hoping that their goals can still be accomplished before the end of the school year.

A group of about thirty-five students attended Sunday's senate meeting, some wearing T-shirts saying "Where's My Vote?" Public testimony was filled with students voicing their displeasure at the election board's decision.

"I'm really disappointed in the throwing out of the democratic process. This election process has been flawed from the beginning," said UAF Student Terin Walton Rantz.

During the meeting, the senate voted down two items that would have allowed them to hear the petition. The senate failed to remove a bylaw, 810.2, from the ASUAF bylaw that would have allowed them to override the Election Review Council. The Council normally hears elections board complaints.

The item died by a vote of 7-5, which was not the two-thirds majority vote required to amend the constitution. The bylaw change would have allowed the general senate body to hear and act on the petition.

The Senate also decided in a vote of 6-4 to not change elections manual rule 973.

The rule maintains that all "appeals of the decision of the election board, if allowed, must be made within 24 hours of the decision." This ruling stands in the petitioners' way as well, since the board's decision was made Wednesday, Apr. 28, and the petition wasn't presented until Sunday.

Robert Jordan, a journalist major, is one of the student organizers petitioning for a new election.

"We are not necessarily partisan, we are just interested in the plurality of the student votes electing our president. We started getting petitions signed Thursday at 9 a.m. and stopped at 2:30 p.m. We got 451 signatures, and if that doesn't make a statement, I don't know what does," Jordan said, "If the UAF students want this, and if the ASUAF bureaucracy can't handle it, what good are they to the students?"

Jordan said that his group isn't done yet, and that they plan to file a complaint with the UAF grievance board, an entity outside of the ASUAF institution.

"We're not giving up, I'll continue to fight this even after I'm gone."