An Associated Students' senatorial candidate, who missed becoming a senator by two votes last week, is appealing the vote count.

Madison O'Neil, communications junior, will bring the matter before the UA Supreme Court tonight. The court is authorized to settle ASUA election disputes.

Jennifer Haber, ASUA elections commissioner, said O'Neil is appealing the process the Elections Commission uses to count the votes because he said the margin of error is too high when there is a close vote.

O'Neil lost the to Kim Montanaro, history and political science sophomore, for the eighth senatorial seat.

"Basically we are in a dead heat, even though Haber said Montanaro is the winner," O'Neil said.

According to the elections code, if there is a 1 percent or less difference between candidates then the elections committee must recount the votes.

Haber said, because Montanaro won by just one vote on the first count, the ballots were recounted. The second time it was determined that Montanaro beat O'Neil by two votes.

"I understand how he is upset because it was so close, but my view is it wasn't a tie, I came out on top both times," Montanaro said.

Haber said the ballots are counted electronically two or three times by machines borrowed from the Pima County Elections Commission.

ASUA ballots are similar to those used in local and national elections. Voters select candidates by punching through slots in the ballot. Machines then count the votes by counting which slots have been punched out.

Students do not always punch their choice hard enough on the ballot, Haber said. That is why ASUA members who help with the ballots must wipe each one off before it is run through the vote-counting machine. This is supposed to remove any slots that were punched but stuck to the ballot.

Haber said because these slots sometimes stick, it is common for the totals from elections to change after the second count.

The court will decide if the commission should hold a run-off election for the two candidates. Haber said her biggest concern with a run-off election is the money it would cost because ASUA would have to pull money allocated for other areas.

This year, $8,000 was allocated for ASUA primaries, general elections and Graduate and Professional Student elections.

ASUA President Ben Driggs said he does not know yet how much a runoff would cost, but thinks it will be less than $1,000.

Appeals are very familiar to the ASUA Elections Commission. In 1994, presidential candidate Jason Wong went to the Supreme Court twice over discrepancies he had with write-in ballots and sections of the elections code. Last year, Ethan Orr filed an appeal alleging unfairness with the elections code.

He lost the presidential election to Ben Driggs by 124 votes.