The Student Association Board of Elections has thrown out this week’s election results because of missing electronic ID swipes from voters.

The announcement came early Thursday morning when a comparison between the number of ballots and the number of corresponding NIU OneCard swipes showed a 7-percent difference. SA election policy allows, at most, a 5-percent margin of error.

The board has scheduled a special, one-day-only election for Wednesday to decide who will become SA president, vice president, treasurer and

student trustee.

Board chairwoman Emiko Pope said election officials failed to properly swipe at least 100 OneCards on Tuesday at Founders Memorial Library. The cards were facing the wrong direction when swiped, prompting a “begin transaction” message that judges Arra and Suzanne Garab assumed was validation.

The news follows numerous SA election problems over the years, and Pope hopes students don’t look too critically at the situation.

“There was no fraud, no ballot stuffing,” she said. “The people who run the machines, they aren’t cafeteria people familiar with swiping cards. And it’s not to say they are old people who didn’t know what they were doing. They made a mistake.”

The Garabs have been election judges in the past and were familiar with the 3-year-old OneCard voting method. In an affidavit given to Pope, the judges said they knew something was unusual about the awkward message, but couldn’t contact any board members until early Tuesday afternoon.

Even with the planned re-do, the next step in the election process could occur today. Student trustee candidate Andrew Anderson has appealed the board’s decision to the SA Supreme Court, asking that the justices validate the election because of a lack of fraud and release the results. Later in the evening, Ken Getty came into the Star with a letter to the Supreme Court stating that all members of the election, excluding SA presidential candidate Shawn McGady, who could not be contacted at the time the letter was made, were appealing the motion.

Pope said she would accept any reversal by the court.

“I have no problem with that,” she said. “The Board of Elections made the decision because we were held to the elections policy.”

Richard Foreman, an associate justice, would lead the court in deciding Anderson’s appeal. Chief Justice Alan Smith is attending a conference off campus.

If the justices stand by the board’s decision, Wednesday’s election would be followed a week later by a one-day runoff election, if necessary.

Pope said all election judges would come back with full knowledge about swiping procedures.

“My main concern is that this came off as ‘Look, at this, the SA messed up again,'” Pope said. “This is not the case.”