The Undergraduate Student Government Senate will hold hearings tomorrow night to examine problems with Centre County voting procedures and registration that students said they encountered in the November election.

Lisa Fields, ELMS coalition co-director, said students need to work with election officials to find solutions so these problems will not occur again. ELMS is a student organization formed to promote student issues in local politics.

"The goal (of the hearing) is to compromise . . . not to be adversarial," said USG Senate President Mike King.

A list of 10 tentative witnesses has been compiled by King, and he hopes more students who had problems voting will come foward.

Each witness will answer both general and specific questions regarding the elections process from Senate members. Topics will include voter registration and form availability, voter registration cards, polling places, performance of elections officials, students being denied the chance to vote and possible solutions to these problems, King said.

"This is more for information than for gathering evidence," King said, adding that he will use some of the information in future meetings with Centre County officials. King is meeting with Centre County Commissioner Denny Sciabica Monday.

The hearing will pull student complaints together and bring possible recommendations for improvements, said Tracy Farmer, campaign manager for former State College Borough Council candidate Adam Bender (senior-prelaw).

Many students who thought they were registered went to the polls and found out they were not, Farmer said. She added that she thought some of these students were confused about their correct polling place and were not given more information about where to go.

Although some of the problems may have stemmed from the students themselves, this hearing is to address those students who may have been denied the right to vote, King said.

Former borough council candidate Betty Grudin said the hearing is important because students need to take the initiative and voice their complaints. "Unless the students are going to take it up with (the commissioners), we're never going to get anywhere," she said.

Although King did not know whether any county officials would be present at the hearings, some students said it would be a good idea.

"There are a lot of small technical problems they could help us with," said USG Town Senator Wendy Hurst.

Grudin, a former judge of elections, said she complained to the commissioners about student voting problems last December but did not see any concrete results.