The second is through direct access to the MySQL database that holds raw voter data. Seiler said that it would be possible to modify the votes in this way, explaining that as far as he knew, only he and Hysen had access to the database.

On Tuesday, Nov. 17—after approximately 2,200 votes had been cast, according to Morris—Seiler, a computer science concentrator who worked at Google last summer, wrote a logging program from his own personal FAS account to address the database “vulnerability,” which Seiler said had existed since the system was first designed. The program he wrote would notify him anytime anyone accessed the MySQL database on which the votes were stored, he said.

Around 10 a.m. on Thursday, Flores tried to log into ucpres@gmail.com, an account for which only she, Vice President McLeod, and Student Relations Committee Chair Daniel V. Kroop ’10 knew the password. The account sends e-mails on the behalf of the Council president with the listed address of ucpres@fas.harvard.edu, Flores said.

Both McLeod and Kroop denied knowing anything about the password change, Flores said, though The Crimson obtained an e-mail yesterday forwarded by McLeod to several parties, including Schwartz, Holoshitz and presidential candidate George J. J. Hayward ’11 early Thursday afternoon in which Flores asked for the password.

“[H]a jokes! HAHAHA...should I change it back?” reads McLeod’s comment on the e-mail.

At noon on Thursday, online voting for the presidential elections closed.

At 5:30 Thursday afternoon, 5 members of the Election Commission—Seiler, Dennis M. Mwaura ’12, Emily E. Osborne ’12, Daniel P. Robinson ’10, and Sanyee Yuan ’12—met to certify the results.

Seiler showed the four other members the voting results, which indicated a Bowman-Hysen victory, as tallied by the voting software.

Seiler then took an oral vote to certify the results. According to Osborne, one of the EC members who later resigned, there were no voices of dissent at the time, resulting in a successful certification.

But a few hours later, Yuan learned about the technological loophole that Seiler addressed Monday—a meeting that she did not attend—and became concerned about whether the election had been “free and fair.”

According to Yuan, her requests to Seiler to reconsider the certification of the results were originally rebuffed.

At 8:15 p.m. that evening, Morris met Yuan in Quincy House after the conclusion of the UC Student Initiatives Committee meeting, chaired by Mallika Khandelwal ’11. After discussing their concerns about the voting process and Seiler’s leadership, the two commissioners approached Khandelwal, a known supporter of the presidential campaign of Hayward and Felix M. Zhang ’11, with their worries.

Morris said that Khandelwal encouraged the two to talk to other commissioners, and then informed McLeod of the situation.

10 p.m. found the EC discussing Morris and Yuan’s concerns on the steps of Widener Library, when Seiler called the emergency meeting in the Science Center.

At approximately 10:45 p.m., Seiler, Osborne, and Robinson returned to Widener. Seiler notified The Crimson that they had voted to decertify the election results.