During GM Week 2026, the Rensselaer Union Voting System (RUVS) displayed voters’ legal names in large bolded text after a ballot was submitted, for approximately six hours after voting opened. There was also a separate issue on the ballot itself, where some candidates with preferred names appeared twice, once under their legal name, and then again under their preferred name. The Student Senate's 57th session addressed both issues in Motion #57-10, passed on April 14th, 2026.
On behalf of the Rensselaer Union, we apologize to every student affected by this error, and recognize the harm that it may have caused to transgender and gender non-conforming members of our community.
This is the second time an issue of this nature has affected RUVS, as a similar problem happened during GM Week 2024. We understand how the recurrence of this issue may erode trust in the electoral process of the Rensselaer Union.
In line with our commitment to universal preferred name usage across Institute and Union systems, and following Motion #57-10 of the Student Senate, we are initiating a formal inquiry into this incident, to be conducted by the Web Technologies Group.
This inquiry will examine:
- How legal names were reintroduced to the GM Week 2026 confirmation page and ballot;
- How testing protocol failed to catch an known issue from a prior election cycle;
- The cause of duplicate candidate listings on the ballot;
- How the manual removal of duplicate names resulted in the erasure of votes; and
- What safeguards are needed to prevent something like this from happening again.
The Web Technologies Group will report its findings to the Senate prior to the Class of 2030 Freshman Election cycle.
Thank you. We are committed to making the Union an inclusive space for all, and will ensure circumstances like this do not repeat.
Jordan Krishnayah, 160th Grand Marshal
