In those elections, Houses and first-year voting districts chose representatives, meaning that each vote constituted a greater proportion of the electorate than in this campus-wide election.

Most candidates did not learn until yesterday of the possibility that the results would be delayed, though the council’s election rules do state that announcement of the results can be postponed.

Student reaction to the postponement has varied.

“If it affected 100 people, it would definitely be worth it,” said Jane E. Humphries ’03. “If it affected two or three, probably not.”

Mark F. Giancreco ’06 said he isn’t bothered by the delay.

“I don’t think it does any harm,” he said. “I don’t understand why anyone would be upset about that.”

But Sheila R. Adams ’05, who is a council representative and worked on Chopra’s campaign, said she would prefer the results to be announced as early as possible.

“I definitely wish that at 1 in the morning, after all our hard work on the campaign, we could know the result and whether it was a positive one,” Adams said.

“I do think that on the UC’s part, we need to get our act together, so that we don’t have a system that needs to be ok’d by someone else,” she added.

—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.