The Undergraduate Student Government Senate, amid controversy about the technicalities of its votes, confirmed David Britz as this coming spring's USG election commissioner.

Britz, former president of the Interfraternity Council, was appointed to overlook the USG election process next semester. He will be in charge of making certain the election runs smoothly and that everyone follows the rules, as outlined in the election's code.

Over the course of two senate meetings, discussion about appointing Britz centered on his goals, his competence and whether he might be affected by any conflicts of interest.

Increasing voter turnout and interest in the elections through more publicity was one of Britz's major goals. He also said he hoped to use online voting to increase the number of students who vote. Another of his goals is rewriting the election's code in order to make some items clearer.

"There have been some questions in past elections," Britz said. "I'm really going to look at those things."

Questions came up about his plans for the code, however. Some senators said they were concerned that Britz would be too strict and wouldn't create a code that would allow for interpretation in a situation that might require it.

"I'd look for someone who could read the rules and make a judgement call," said Town Sen. Mike Fedor during debate about Britz at last week's senate meeting.

Others were concerned about Britz's relationship with the IFC and his membership in Lion's Paw, a Penn State secret society. Town Sen. Marc Morgan brought up discrepancies in past elections dealing with possible conflicts of interest.

Britz's candidacy wasn't the only thing in question by the end of the meeting, however. After the senators voted, 12 for confirming Britz, 10 against and two who didn't vote because of the interpretation of Undergraduate Student Government rules, the outcome showed that Britz had not been appointed.

After the vote, however, some members of USG expressed disagreement with the decision on the vote, and some USG policies came into question, including how non-votes should be counted and what the definition of majority was.

Nearly an hour of discussion about the voting procedure at Tuesday's meeting led to the decision to revote, and Britz was appointed as the commissioner.

"Matt (Roan) and I would not have brought him to the Senate once and then twice if we didn't think he was the best candidate," said USG Vice President Kelly O'Brien.

Despite the controversy surrounding the actual election process in appointing Britz, O'Brien said she didn't believe anybody could be certain that the Senate had made a clear decision about him the first time. She added that a second vote might have been the best course of action.

"When you have a vote so close, it's hard to say what the Senate really feels," she said.

The Senate also approved a measure Tuesday night that would change some wording dealing with voting in the USG rules.