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First On-Line Elections Held
Students voting for candidates for the Board of Trustees student position and eight Co-op board of directors were able to cast their vote this year by logging on to http://www.uvote.uconn.edu. During the University's first on-line elections, held from April 17 to April 27, students could vote around the clock. The new on-line voting system, developed by the Division of Student Affairs, was available at all the UConn campuses, including the regional campuses, the Law School and the Health Center. The new system was intended to make voting more convenient and increase participation in the election. In previous years, there has been a low response rate to the 25,000 paper ballots that were sent out. Chuck Morrell, associate director of campus activities, who organized the on-line system, said he hopes that as on-line voting becomes more widely known, participation will increase significantly. Voters in the on-line election could cast their ballot from any computer with Internet access, by providing a valid logon ID - a measure that limited voting to students within the UConn domain. Some voted from their own dorm room or apartment. Others voted at Homer Babbidge Library, residence hall computer labs, the Dean of Students' Office or the Student Union. At the regional campuses, students voted from computer centers; and Health Center students cast their votes at the Lyman Maynard Library. Despite a few glitches with the database at the start of the election, Morrell said the Division of Student Affairs is now working with the Undergraduate Student Government to bring its elections on-line next year. The on-line voting, currently available for student use only, may be made accessible to faculty and staff in the future as well. Morrell also said that in the future the website could be used to poll the University community on referendum-type questions. Successful candidates for the Co-op board of directors were: undergraduate students Lynn Borowiec, Melissa Cyr (regional campus representative) and Aaron Dority; staff member M. Kevin Fahey and faculty member Chinmoy Ghosh; and alumni Kevin Balfe, Melissa O'Hara and Melanie Magnarella. The new student trustee is Christopher Albanese, a student at the School of Law. Rebecca Stygar 
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