With less than a month until Election Day, the guest speaker at last night’s Michigan Student Assembly meeting was Andrew Selbst, a Law School student representing the National Campaign for Fair Elections. He explained some commonly misunderstood details of voting procedures.

Selbst said students who have previously voted in a presidential election in Ann Arbor or those registered to vote in person at the office of the Board of Elections or Department of Motor Vehicles, only need a photo ID at the polls. Accepted forms include a driver’s license, an MCard or a state-issued ID card.

He also said that even without a photo ID, a voter has the option to sign an affidavit swearing that they are who they say they are and vote normally.

For students who registered by mail or with someone on the street, Selbst said, “it gets a little trickier.”

These students will also need to prove residency at the address for which they have registered. Selbst recommended using a voter registration card, driver’s license, bank statement or utility bill, as long as it displays the student’s current Ann Arbor address.

Selbst warned against wearing or carrying materials promoting any candidate within 100 feet of the polling location. Officials will ask voters to remove such articles before entering.

“No McCain t-shirts, Obama stickers. No mentioning of Sarah Palin on SNL," he said.

The National Campaign for Fair Elections has a hotline for voters who encounter problems on or before Election Day. The number for the hotline is 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

MSA members also touched on a controversial proposed apartment complex during last night's meeting.

MSA Vice President Arvind Sohoni and Student General Counsel Michael Benson introduced a new resolution proposal regarding the planned construction of the complex, planned for the corner of South Forest Street and South University Avenue.

The move is in response to the developer’s submission of a scaled-down proposal to the Ann Arbor City Council Monday.

If approved by the Assembly next Tuesday, the resolution would express MSA’s approval of the new plans. Last Tuesday, the Assembly was scheduled to vote on a resolution condemning the construction but because of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, MSA did not have the necessary number of members present to hold a vote.

Sohoni said he changed his position on the construction because of the developers' compromise to scale the building down from 25 stories to 14 and to build on only half of the purchased property.

“I think that the City Council and the developer handled this really well,” he said. “It alleviates a lot of our concerns, making it smaller and more compact.”

—Stephanie Berliant contributed to this report.