Cal State Trustees Asked to Invalidate CSUN Election : Education: Students argue errors left many unable to vote. A $54 fee hike for athletic programs was approved.

Citing alleged improprieties, petition-carrying Cal State Northridge students asked state university trustees Wednesday to invalidate a March election in which students approved a hefty fee hike for athletic programs.

The students, who presented petitions with 1,100 signatures, argued that errors in the conduct of the election left many students uninformed and unable to vote.

“Many students at the Northridge and Ventura campuses were not informed of the election until it was already over,” said Clara Gonzalez-Alvear, president of CSUN’s Ventura students association.

“We have a right, and that right was denied,” she said.

Cal State trustees asked CSUN President Blenda Wilson to look into the complaints, which Wilson agreed to do.

After two similar measures were narrowly defeated, CSUN students voted March 7-9 to approve a $54-a-year increase in student fees to support athletics. The resulting $120-a-year CSUN student association fee is the highest in the 21-campus system.

Leaders of CSUN’s student government organization, which conducted the election, have acknowledged that mistakes were made.

Among the problems, the only information newsletter that CSUN’s student government group mailed out about the election failed to include the text of the athletic fee measure. Student President Fabio Escobar called that an oversight.

Likewise, student leaders conceded the telephone voting process used for the election suffered from a major flaw. To vote, students were required to have registration identification numbers that many had discarded months before. Student leaders decided to save money by not mailing out another set.

And, Gonzalez-Alvear and Ventura campus student Vice President Pat Galliher argued many students did not receive the mailer until after voting was concluded. Incoming CSUN student President Marc Levine disputed that, saying he saw mailers in Ventura before the election.

CSUN campus leaders and Wilson, who both supported the fee increase, said the election should stand despite the flaws.

The complaints are “like the regular voter in Southern California saying ‘I’m not going to vote because the polling place is in a garage three blocks down the street,’ ” Wilson said.

“I don’t think (the process) disenfranchised those who wanted to vote,” she said.