It's only been a month of craziness, but the first University Park Undergraduate Association election has already created as much drama as could be expected from a typical year of Undergraduate Student Government in-fighting.

And we owe it all to a severely flawed elections code, the dangerous time limit on campaign time and the lack of student input on the decisions that have already been made.

What did we get? The student who received the most student votes will not be the president of UPUA.

The official statement is that Jay Bundy's fines led to his disqualification. Naturally, the elections commission, composed of three students who ultimately decided to oust Bundy, has denied any attempt to corrupt UPUA before the organization even gets started.

Getting rid of Bundy may have been the best decision for the students in the long run, but the process was so completely flawed that overall the students are still being jilted.

The election code is so confusing that it's no surprise a candidate violated it.

No one knows what would have happened had Bundy assumed the presidency. However, because of the system the UPUA transition group put in place, the new student government is off to a shaky start.

The majority of students who voted in the UPUA elections voted for Jay Bundy. He received 1,147 votes compared to Jay Chamberlin's 758. He was the clear winner.

While Chamberlin has moved quickly and honorably to make the new student government legitimate, he was not the student appointed winner.

Likewise, students were given no opportunity to give their input on what to do about Bundy's code violations. It was a decision made behind closed doors by an election commission that has proven incompetent from the beginning.

Student government is clearly at a crossroads, and it doesn't seem to be moving in the right direction. Its legitimacy is questionable before its new government has even had the opportunity to get off the ground.

The students have the right to decide whether Bundy is qualified to be their president or not.

If he is a questionable candidate, put it to the students again.

If there is to be a student government at Penn State, it must be a legitimate one. By disqualifying the candidate who won the support of student voters, it is failing all University Park students.

The process should be open. The process should be simple. And Bundy, capable or not, should be president as long as the students say he should be.