ASUSU tweaks election rules
With ASUSU elections coming up, many students will notice a different atmosphere than past years, and council members hope these changes will encourage more people to become involved and vote.
One of the major changes for this years’ election will be the time frame candidates have to campaign, said Brittany Ingalls, recruitment chair for the PR committee. Elections will now be held over a week’s time, with two days for primary elections and two days for final elections, to help alleviate some of the annoyances that can come from campaigning.
“Students hate it when they get bugged. It’s not fun and it doesn’t help anyone want to vote because it is just obnoxious. We made it shorter so that it doesn’t drag on for so long,” Ingalls said.
Kayla Harris, elections co-chair, said increasing student participation is the main goal with elections, along with “decreasing the antagoniziation of the student population.”
To help decrease the negative aspects from past election years, committee members picked by ASUSU PR director Lacey Nagao met together to discuss the past problems and help find solutions. Nagao said it was important to figure out what would help students have a better experience, but also be accepted by the current executive council.
One of the biggest complaints from last year that are trying to be solved for this year, Harris said, is the passing out of fliers that students are “bombarded with all week.” To alleviate the problem, Harris said the committee has created “I already spoke” buttons and door hangers for students that will be handed out. She said students will be able to put these buttons on their coats and doors to indicate they would like to be left alone by the candidates and campaigners.
Ingalls said she knows elections can be annoying, but changes like these will hopefully make it a better experience for everyone.
Another problem Harris and Ingalls said was an issue last year was laptops at voting stations and the “smothering effect” it had on potential voters. This year, Ingalls said they viewed that as an infringement on the sanctity of voting, which should be able to be a private thing. To help with this, she said laptops will not be allowed at the candidates’ A-frames. There will be stations set up in the TSC and library during election week run by impartial people where she said students will have the opportunity to vote without anyone trying to promote a specific candidate.
Ingalls said it is important for students to become involved and vote because those running for office have power over things like budget money.
“We want students to be aware that the students they vote into office have power over them and the money that gets spent,” Ingalls said.
Each candidate should have a knowledge about what they are running for, and Ingalls said students should be aware of that and ask them questions about it.
“We want it to be a transparent organization to the student body, all of the information about each candidates’ charter is online and students can research into it as much as they want. Candidates should be able to tell you what they are responsible for,” Ingalls said.
Nagao said candidates this year will not be allowed to file a grievance toward another candidate. A grievance is something a student can file when they see a candidate breaking a rule in the bylaws for elections. She said last year “candidates were filing more grievances than campaigning.” A grievance board made up of three ASUSU officers and four students will take all complaints coming in and deal with them in a hopefully less-biased way, Nagao said. Any student can file a grievance toward a candidate if he or she tries to campaign at a house that has an “I already spoke” door hanger or if any other bylaws are violated.
“No candidate can file grievances because we want people to focus on their own individual campaigns,” Nagao said.
Another change being enforced this year is no ASUSU officer can publicly endorse anyone, Nagao said. Last year there were officers who were campaign managers for other candidates and she said that won’t be allowed.
Nagao said the committee is really trying to promote voting more than in the past. She said after students vote, they will be entered into a drawing to win prizes. She said prizes, including two iPads, iPods and various gift cards, will hopefully provide some kind of an incentive to get students to vote.
Changes to the election bylaws must be approved by the ASUSU PR Director and then by the ASUSU Executive Council, Harris said, and not all changes proposed for this year were accepted by the executive council.
She said the committee tried to increase the required USU GPA to 3.0 but executive council members argued that being in good standing with Utah State should be good enough. A move to keep candidates from entering on-campus housing as a safety measure was not passed either, Harris said. She said the committee went to USU Housing and came to an understanding about the concerns.
“Candidates cannot enter an apartment unless there is more than one person there,” Ingalls said. “We are still working with RHA so what is and isn’t allowed isn’t finalized yet.”
Nagao said for the most part, changing the bylaws has been a positive experience.
“We definitely had to do some rough drafts. Officers wanted to know the reasoning behind the changes we presented, but I think in the end everyone was happy about it all,” she said.
The bylaws haven’t been changed in quite some time, Nagao said, and the way campaigning is done has changed over time, so it was necessary to change the bylaws.
“We mainly just updated them,” she said, “we added some things but mostly clarified a lot of the things. We made them more specific and outlined them better.”
Nagao said if anyone wants to run for ASUSU positions, packets are in TSC 326 or can be downloaded from the ASUSU website. She said any current officer would “be more than happy” to meet with any questions about a position.
ELECTION CHANGES:
• Election period shortened to one week
•Buttons and door hangers letting candidates know you have voted
•Candidates cannot campaign with laptops
•Voting booths set up in TSC and library
• Candidates may not file grievances against other candidates
• ASUSU officers cannot endorse any candidates
• Candidates may not enter off-campus housing or apartments
– megan.b@aggiemail.usu.edu