Two May Days, yesterday and today, Bryn Mawr and Belmont Plateau. Both were quite fun. At Bryn Mawr we went to the dining hall and were awfully out of place. The nine of us, some of us male and all of us in our red garnet and black kits stood, not knowing where to go, and surrounded by a very large number of girls sitting at tables in white frilly dresses. They were all in white frilly dresses, and they were all girls. I felt somewhat out of place. The large amounts of Strawberries and cream made up for it though, and we saw Mariah.

Dancing there went well, with Stillington not being too interesting, but Helmsley II going well. The double triangle lock of Helmsley went perfectly. There was also maypole dancing, but that was very silly, being much more of a race than anything else. The students didn't seem to care about the pattern or even keeping the ribbons taut, making a jumbled mess. When the seniors got bored they just left their ribbons in a heap at the bottom of the pole and declared victory. I know that it is a race, but they should have a restriction that you need to do it properly. I suspect that a long time ago it was done right, and then slowly progressed to more and more or a race. But right now it's laughable.

Dancing at Belmont Plateau was also fun, though far too early. As at Bryn Mawr, the Kingsessing Morris Men and the Germantown Country Dancers (Longsword and Garland) also danced. It was a very pretty morning, with no rain or even many clouds. The sun came up as requested and we danced for a little while after to make sure it stayed up.

Just before we started Helmsley, though, a sinister force appeared on the scene. A large blue tractor, apparently sent there to mow the park, started across the field. As it got closer it got noisier, being somewhat unpleasant. Moving across the field, between where we were and where cars were parked, it was almost between the television crew that was recording the festivities and their van, when people realized that there were cables. And that mowers are not nice to cables. The newspeople turned around and started running towards the tractors, waving wildly. It ended up stopping just short of the cables. Unfortunately, while this was happening we tried to start our dance. More accurately, our musician tried to start the dance, and the first dancer in line, Alex George, started off. Being distracted by the tractor and commotion, I didn't move. People poked me, though, and I went on and joined the dance. The dance itself went very well.

Pictures of both May Days are still being collected, as of now, but will be up in the pictures section when they are ready. Will Quale already has some up.

Vans

Also there was much silliness with vans. The student van coordinator, lorpu jones, is frustratingly bad about responding on time requests for vans. We made sure to request one well in advance, but that was not enough. As the time drew nearer and she didn't respond, though, we became more worried, first emailing her again, then calling her room and cell, then repeatedly calling her. When we finally got through to her it was 6:30 in the morning on Sunday and she didn't have a van for us. Luckilly the folks over at Peaslee are very nice and let us use their van for the morning. We were very careful with it.

We also needed a van for the next day, and Lorpu was helpful with that, though letting us know a little earlier would have been nice. That went fine, except it seems the gas gauge is broken, or somehow messed up. We drove a total of 46 miles, and the gauge went from one-fourth to one-eighth full. After dropping people off, though, I went to fill it up. I put $10 (3.2 gal) in, and the gauge stayed at one-eighth. I put in another $10, and another, and it still did not move. Most of the way through the fourth $10, the pump reported that the van's tank was full. The gauge still read well under one-quarter. Sounds broken to me.

Student Council

There's also messiness over the elections for co-president of student council. One of the candidates apparently tested the security of the voting system, and found it to be insecure. He then claims to have inserted two votes, one for himself and one for another candidate. He informed the election committee, whose two official responses were to first cancel online voting and require paper voting in Sharples, and then, several days later, to declare the entire first co-presidential election void, holding a special election with that candidate disqualified.

The problem is, the election committee does not have the power to do this. The constitution states, in Article II, that,

1.6 Election Fraud

1.6.1 Upon reasonable evidence of elections fraud, SC has the power to void a contested election if two thirds of all members present vote to do so.

1.6.2 Any student may protest any specific election result by registering a complaint in writing with a member of the Elections Committee within 24 hours of the announcement of election results. This protest shall be heard in a meeting of the whole Council.

1.6.3 If SC finds that an election was fraudulent to the extent that the determination of the winner was probably affected, the election shall be voided.

1.6.4 If SC finds that a requirement of this Constitution was violated in an election, the election shall be voided.

And then a bit later that,

2.3 Special elections shall be held in the event of election fraud, seat vacancy, or failure of any candidate to achieve a plurality. ...

It appears that it is Student Council that must void the election, and they have not done so. Even then, they would have to find that not only had the candidate committed ballot fraud but also that the "determination of the winner was probably affected". Without this the initial election results should stand, unvoided.