The Student Association doesn’t want you to vote in the SA Senate elections today and Wednesday.

Throughout the last couple weeks, the Northern Star has reported on various aspects of the Senate elections. From the day the candidates were supposed to be announced but weren’t, to the most recent developments in regard to the bylaw changes, the SA has consistently dropped the ball.

On Monday, the Northern Star reported there were “illegal” changes made to the SA bylaws over the weekend. As it turns out, the changes were legally made a year ago by last fall’s Senate. The SA was just a year late making these changes known.

It’s understandable that the version available online might be a little outdated - but one year?

It’s not understandable that Election Commissioner Sarah Roman distributed more than 30 copies of these outdated bylaws to the very individuals the change affects most: the fall 2007 Senate candidates.

This wasn’t the only bit of misinformation distributed to the candidates leading up to this week’s election.

According to information distributed to candidates Sept. 11 and 12, the names of all candidates would be published Monday, Sept. 17. This did not happen, and the only way the Northern Star was able to obtain these names was with the help of Senate Speaker Rob Batey - though this was actually the responsibility of Roman.

The next day, Sept. 18, the list had been posted in the SA office in the Campus Life Building. But the list was different than the one the Northern Star originally received and subsequently published.

In one more example of misinforming prospective SA senators, materials distributed to candidates contained grossly inaccurate and downright false information in regard to who is even eligible to run for the Senate.

One section said undergraduate candidates had to be enrolled in at least 12 credit hours and all other students enrolled in at least 9. This actually only applies to the executive positions, for which elections took place last spring.

The SA has disenfranchised and disrespected students in a number of ways. By distributing outdated information, the SA sweepingly excluded whole groups of students who otherwise may have been interested in getting involved in student government.

The SA has addressed these issues as they’ve come up - apologizing and clarifying in the form of e-mails and press releases, but this isn’t enough.

If students can’t count on the SA to keep its own policies, regulations and procedures up-to-date, how can they count on the SA to fulfill its primary purpose - serving and representing the interests of the NIU student body - with any kind of competence?

The problem is that students can’t, and the soon-to-be-elected Senate should make its first priority to tighten things up within the organization.

That way, the SA can get on to more important matters, like its fundamental purpose of serving the students of NIU.

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