Student Government has struggled with low voter turnout in elections for several years, and many universities across the country who have experienced the same problem have moved to an online voting system.
Many senators and SG members at LSU are interested in examining the possibility of moving to an online voting system.
Student senators approved a resolution to form a SG commission on online voting during a Feb. 5 Senate meeting.
The charge for commission members is to investigate the pros and cons of an online voting system accessible through students’ PAWS accounts for all SG elections.
“It’s convenient,” SG President Darrell Broussard said. “That’s what students want. It’s the bottom line — we need to be about what students want.”
Broussard said a system of online voting definitely would increase the voter turnout numbers.
In the spring 2002 SG election, only about 10 percent of students voted, Broussard said.
In the fall 2002 SG election absentee voting period, only 63 students cast votes, Student Senate Speaker Pro-Tempore Katie Dampier said. On the same day, more than 2,000 students attempted to access the restricted PAWS link to “SG elections.”
Dampier said although she has several concerns with an online voting system, these numbers prove students would be more likely to vote online than on campus at designated locations.
Broussard, Dampier and Student Senate Speaker Jay Buller agreed the biggest advantage of an online voting system would be the convenience for students.
“I think it would be good to bring the polls to the student, instead of bringing the students to the polls,” Buller said.
Buller added that a larger voter turnout adds to the credibility of SG as student body representatives.
But there are several concerns commission members plan to investigate and debate.
Concerns include the chance of PAWS crashing on election day, power failing on election day and people hacking into the voting system.
Broussard said the biggest concern is group voting.
Broussard and other members of the commission are concerned that students will tamper with the voting system by logging on under several different students’ PAWS login names and voting in their place.
The commission includes Broussard, Buller, Dampier, Commissioner of Elections Zach Howser and selected members of the Student Senate, SG and Freshman Executive Committee. Other members will be a student appointed by Broussard, as well as a member of Excel, a student organization that investigated online voting as a service project last year.
The commission will make a formal recommendation to the Student Senate by the Senate’s first meeting in April.