The paperwork of about 30 people who were deputized at the Oct. 15 Associated Student Government meeting has been lost, said an official from the Cook County Clerk’s office.
About 70 senators, Evanston residents and student group representatives were deputized at the meeting, authorizing them to register others to vote in Cook County. Participants listened to a presentation by a Cook County official, then took an oath to follow election rules.
It was unclear Sunday whether those whose paperwork was lost would again have to undergo the hourlong deputization process or would simply have to resign the oaths administered at the meeting.
Cook County elections spokesman Scott Burnham said Friday that he would know Monday what steps would be taken to resolve the situation.
The deputization was the result of an ASG bill approved Oct. 1 that called for all senators to become deputy registrars to increase student political involvement on campus.
Burnham said there was confusion regarding the process because officials from the Cook County Clerk’s office, who attended the ASG meeting to authorize the deputization, only expected about half as many people that showed up for the ceremony to attend the meeting.
Because more people than expected came to be deputized, forms were not available for everyone. People who did not receive forms last week will be able to sign them at this Wednesday’s ASG Senate meeting.
“I think this incident just shows how important it is for Northwestern students to register (to vote) through a deputy registrar in person and not through the mail,” said ASG City Council Liaison John Hughes, a Weinberg junior, who authored the bill calling for the deputization.
Hughes, who also is a former Daily Forum editor and current board member for the Students Publishing Co., which owns The Daily, said in-person voter registration offers safeguards against such problems because voters get a receipt of their registration. If their form is lost, they can present their receipt to officials to prove they were registered.
Baylee SiMonday, a senator for Bobb and McCulloch halls who was deputized at the meeting, said ASG senators were notified that the sworn oaths were lost at the end of last week via an e-mail from Kawika Pierson, ASG’s speaker of the senate.
But Simon said it was unclear from the e-mail which individuals’ paperwork was missing.
“Mine could be lost, for all I know,” said SiMonday, a Medill freshman.
Simon said even if her paperwork has been lost, she is willing to undergo the deputization process again because voter registration is an important issue for her.
“(Voter registration) will get people more involved in the politics in Illinois because we’re going to be residents here for the next four years,” Simon said.
