Zach Howser, a history senior, might be the busiest person on campus April 2, election day, other than the candidates.
“You tend to be isolated because most of the people that you’re used to working with are involved in the running, and you’re kind of under the heat,” Howser said. “It’s kind of like being the hall monitor.”
What exactly does commissioner of elections do?
“I’m in charge of overseeing and facilitating the runnings in the fall and spring, and I resolve any disputes over elections,” he said.
He said his job has been more demanding in the past three weeks with SG elections approaching, and adding to that is the implementation of a new voting system with computers instead of voting machines.
What is the new voting system and how does it work?
Howser said elections will be done by using computer programs from the Office of Computing Services through PAWS located at the same voting stations. He said the new system is a step forward for the voting process because it will save money and prepare to make online voting in the future.
“We don’t have to rent out those machines from the State Election Commission’s Office anymore,” Howser said. “It’s going to make counting a lot easier because it’s done by the computer program itself. All we have to do is separate people for runoffs.”
He said the new system will be extremely accurate with no human error involved in counting votes.
How are voting locations determined?
Howser said the current voting locations are at college buildings, such as CEBA, Choppin or Johnston.
“We want to maximize the number of people voting, but we’re still putting voting locations in places that aren’t necessarily high traffic areas,” Howser said.
Currently, students no longer have to vote at their colleges and can go to any of the eight locations around campus at their convenience.
Howser said there is a possibility of having online voting in future elections, but if the campus decides to do this, SG officials would have to rewrite the entire election code.
What is the election code?
Howser said the code is a document of rules and regulations he has for governing elections, and there are plans to revise it.
“Our rules, as they’re written, are for a system we don’t even use,” Howser said. “I’ve been saying we need to rewrite it since August because it’s contradictory.”
He said the code has been revised piece by piece rather than as a whole throughout the years and has made some guidelines unclear.
“A lot of campaigning has been questioned because a candidate can do certain things that break the code before active campaigning, but if they do it before filing, they’re not really a candidate yet,” Howser said. “If you’re not a candidate before you file, technically you can cheat all you want.”