In a flash of irony, the Undergraduate Council--an institution already on wobbly legs, yet one with a sizable budget and sizable list of both responsibilities and opportunities--has proven incapable of completing the most basic task before it: the election of its own members.

Due to computer error, the council has decided to invalidate last week's elections, in which one whole day's worth of votes some-how failed to be recorded.

Even if human error on the part of the Harvard Computer Society contributed to the problem, responsibility ultimately lies with the council for failing to secure the propagation of its own existence. Or, even if it doesn't lie there in truth, it will in the eyes of a campus already disillusioned with the council's existence.

Of course, the Election Commission has made the right decision in invalidating last week's results and scheduling new elections. And instead of banning any further postering, the commission should consider instead giving each candidate a small budget to reposter. Otherwise, the percentage of students who vote in the re-scheduled election may not exceed the single digits.

Still, the sad fact is that last week's elections barely registered with the voters in the first place. And even sadder but just as true, no one on campus, save the handful of candidates in competitive races themselves, would care if these elections were never rescheduled.

No one would care if instead of going through the charade of a representative election once more, candidates were chosen instead by picking straws.

No one would care if the whole idea of elections were thrown out and everyone who wanted to be one became a council member.

No one would care--indeed, some people would even stand and cheer--if the council just ceased to exist for the year.

Perhaps council President Beth A. Stewart '00 and company should take the malfunctioning of the computerized elections as a stroke of divine intervention. Perhaps council members are being sent a simple message: You will not exist because there is no need for your existence.