USUSA votes to change student voting process

On Nov. 8, the Utah State University Student Association voted to amend its constitution to provide an expedited and rank-choice voting process during USUSA elections.

The USUSA Executive Leadership Board met to approve the amendment, and later that night, the board discussed and approved the changes with their statewide councils. 

“We’re just doing some work to reduce the burden for participation in elections,” said Clara Alder, the USUSA president.

Originally, the election timeline would take place over a period of three weeks, according to the USUSA constitution. Now, according to the constitution’s ancillary Election Bylaws, the elections timeline will take place over eight days instead of 19.

In order to change the elections timeline, the USUSA constitution needs to be amended. To facilitate this amendment, USUSA will host a special elections referendum event on Nov. 21, according to a tweet released by the USU Student Association on Nov. 8. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: pic.twitter.com/sjw1Lgkk32

— USU Student Association (@UtahStateSA) November 9, 2022

The special election will be held to amend Article III Sections 1 Subsection B of the USUSA Constitution, which describes the current elections timeline. The amendment will change the USUSA Constitution  to read, “the elections timeline will be determined and outlined in the USUSA Elections Bylaws.”

According to the Election Bylaws, students will rank their candidates in numerical order reflecting their preference, rather than choosing one candidate. 

Elle Brown-Horton, USUSA’s public relations director, said that the rank choice voting would enable the candidates to have a more competitive race.

In the past, she said, the races usually involved two students — but having students rank their favorites could give more candidates a chance at winning.

“I think rank-choice gives the opportunity for more people to genuinely have the competition and opportunity to be in a position,” Brown-Horton said. 

Brown-Horton also said the expedited voting would prevent a voter burnout, as students won’t have to vote for Executive Leadership Board positions the first week, have a second week as a break, and then vote for all other USUSA council positions the third. This will generate a higher voter turnout, she said.

The executive council also discussed several grammatical and linguistic changes in their meeting and will subsequently change their constitution and Election Bylaws to suit the necessary changes.

Linda Zimmerman, the director of the student leadership and involvement center, supervised the meetings and amendments.  

“We’re always looking for ways to improve and simplify the processes,” Zimmerman said.

Featured photo by Bailey Rigby