Graduate students are in the process of collecting signatures for a protest of last month’s Government of the Student Body election.

The election, which took place March 7 and 8, was marred when ballots of 3,700 out of 4,100 graduate students were miscoded.

The glitch forced graduate students to cast a ballot in the college of their concentration, instead of the Graduate College, said Michelle Bohan, president of Graduate and Professional Student Senate.

The Graduate and Professional Student Senate executive board is trying to get 410 graduate student signatures for a petition to protest the results.

“We want to be fairly represented as a GSB constituency,” she said.

Bohan said even though these students were still allowed to vote, the problem is only a handful of them actually voted in the election for the graduate senators.

She said individuals could petition the election commission to change their constituency voting area to Graduate College, but many graduate students did not know this.

Bohan said the same problem has plagued the GSB elections for several years now. She was told by 2004 GSB Election Commissioner Clint Fichter that the problem would be fixed, she said.

Caleb Shinn, GSB election commissioner, could not be reached for comment.

Three candidates were on the ballot for GSB Graduate Senator. The constituency receives three senatorial spots from GSB.

• Jason Stanek, graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, received 31 votes as a write-in candidate.

• Greg Shepherd, graduate assistant in natural resource ecology and management, received 15 votes.

• Jonathan Mullin, graduate assistant in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, received 22 votes.

Andrew Severin, graduate assistant in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, was an official candidate on the ballot did not win a position with his 13 votes.

Bohan said the write-in candidate winning with only 31 votes is not representative of the Graduate College.

Mullin said although he does not like the idea of going out and getting the signatures required for re-election, he agrees with the push for a fair election.

“It was a very unfortunate event,” he said. “It is something that needs to be looked into in the future.”

Bohan said GPSS brought the matter up with the GSB Supreme Court but did not meet the 24-hour grace period after an election to submit a complaint.

She said GPSS did not know the extent of the problem until after that period.

She said she thought the GSB Supreme Court should take this into consideration.

“It’s kind of a huge mess,” Bohan said. “I have my own feelings about the court’s decision.”

Bohan said GPSS members pursued a stipulation in the GSB bylaws that allows for a recall election if 10 percent of the constituency in question signs a petition. She said graduate senators began retrieving signatures April 1.

Stanek said he was in favor of getting the discrepancies taken care of.

“The main goal is to make sure things are coded correctly in the future,” he said.

He said if the petition gets 410 signatures he would want it to be on the new ballot.