Quick fixes for a couple technical difficulties

Deputy election commissioner Shawn Gordon sent me these common questions about ballot access to post for anyone who's having trouble voting. He said the commission has not heard from many students that are having trouble voting, but just wanted to make sure students had this information so they could vote "confidently." Here are the two questions and answers:

"1. I get an error accessing the ballot through the "Click Here to Vote" button. The error says my timezone is incorrect. How can I vote?
Answer: The vote.psu.edu site uses your PC/MAC time to verify that it is between 6am and 10pm. This is in addition to the voting server validating the time through the voting system. PC/MACs on Eastern Daylight Time should be on UTC -4. However, some are still set to UTC -5, and others are on different times. Students can simply use the international page via the lower button (second on the page) and select from the various timezones one that is correct.

2. I changed my password recently. I can't log on with it.
The simple changing of a new password should not be a problem. However, if a student's new password has "special characters," these characters do not work with all of PSU authentication systems, and subsequently the system is rejecting user IDs with these "bad" passwords. Students with compliant passwords will be able to vote. The links below provide information on passwords and how to change them.

ITS has a website with these disallowed characters: http://its.psu.edu/password/bestpractices.html#disallowed
Students can check passwords for assurance in working with all PSU authentication systems at https://clc.its.psu.edu/users/VerifyPassword.aspx

Students with additional concerns can reach the Commission via vote.psu.edu and clicking on 'Contact Us.'"

- Ian