Results from Commerce Society (ComSoc) elections remain unreleased following delays in the AMS administration of the Winter 2026 election period.
In a statement to The Journal, ComSoc Chief Returning Officer, Elite La said the issue was first identified on Jan. 28, prompting an immediate investigation by the AMS Civic Affairs Office, which administers faculty society elections.
According to the AMS, the error occurred during the preparation and conversion of the electors list for the Simply Voting platform. When filtering the AMS master student list for students enrolled in the Bachelor of Commerce program, a data loss error during .csv file conversion resulted in an incomplete list being uploaded. As a result, a portion of eligible Commerce students were unintentionally excluded from the initial ballot.
The Civic Affairs Office formally accepted full responsibility for the error in a report to ComSoc, stating it “materially affected the representativeness of the election.”
The office further stated that the error wasn’t relayed to the administration, oversight, or conduct of the election by ComSoc or its executives.
To address the issue, the AMS prepared a replacement ballot. The corrected ballot’s scheduled to be released at 12 a.m. on Feb. 6 through Simply Voting.
All eligible Commerce students, including those who previously voted and those who were unable to vote, will be able to cast or recast their ballot.
Election results will be announced following the close of the revised voting period and the formal validation of results by the AMS Civic Affairs Office.
In its report, the Civic Affairs Office acknowledged the failure occurred during a period when multiple faculty society elections, alongside the AMS executive and referendum elections, were being administered, but noted these circumstances didn’t excuse the breakdown.
The office outlined corrective measures moving forward, including updated procedural documentation requiring multiple verification steps when preparing the elector’s list, as well as strengthened communication with faculty societies.
Results for both HSS and ComSoc remain pending. The AMS hasn’t provided a public timeline for when all faculty society election outcomes will be finalized and released.
Tags
AMS, Chief Returning Officer, ComSoc, Simply Voting, student elections, Voting
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