The privacy rights of students who voted yesterday in Undergraduate Student Government elections at the Student Book Store were violated.

The normally confidential USG election ballots lost their secrecy when students voting at SBS, 330 E. College Ave., were told their vote would not count unless they filled in their student ID number.

Students were told to fill in ID numbers to ensure they were not voting twice, said Jill Tait , one of the SBS poll workers. It had the same principle as marking the back of students' ID cards, Tait said.

"This is not an invasion of privacy," she said. "I don't know who it was implemented by, and I'm the worst person to ask."

Tait was told by the other SBS poll workers to ensure students fill in their student numbers, she said.

Many students said they did not feel the mandatory ID fill-in was an injustice. The bookstore was the only polling place where students were required to fill in their ID numbers.

"Students may be offended by that, but it's not a real private issue," said Erika Eld (junior-business logistics). "(The) majority of students aren't going to care."

When USG became aware of the issue, Head USG Elections Commissioner Angelo Annese acted.

Annese sent Laura C. Taylor, voting and tallying commissioner, to repair the damage at 2 p.m. and ensure students' privacy rights were not violated for the remainder of the day.

The town commissioner, who was supposed to manage the SBS polling station, did not contact Taylor. Other arrangements were made for the station's management by various commissioners, Taylor said, but no commissioner was going to be at the station the entire day.

"My instructions were explicit, and I left my phone number in case any problems were encountered," Taylor said. "But no one called with a question about ID numbers."

For the students who entered ID numbers accidentally or were told it was mandatory, student ID numbers will not be recorded, Annese said, only ballot selections will be.

"It was a mistake," said USG President Sharon Entenberg. "All that we can do is promise students that their ballots will be kept confidential and destroyed after counts are verified."