After last week’s computer malfunction in the fallelections, Student Government is giving students another chance tovote.
Any student who tried to vote “no” between 8 a.m.and 11 a.m. last Wednesday on the $1 fee increase referendum tofund daily newspapers was unable to submit his or her ballot.Instead of giving confirmation that the student successfullysubmitted his or her ballot, the screen went blank and the computerdid not count any of the students’ votes.
So to ensure the fairness of the election, SG Commissioner ofElections Devin Reid said students who were unable to submit votesbecause of the glitch, or just did not remember to vote, are beinggiven a second chance.
From 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. this Wednesday, students can vote on tworeferendums, several Senate seats in four colleges, two UniversityCourt seats and one seat on the Recreational Sports ComplexCommittee.
Students who successfully submitted their online ballots andreceived an immediate confirmation will not be able to vote becausetheir student identification numbers are stored in a database.
SG President Brad Golson said hopefully the extra day of votingwill enable a few more students to vote, but he does not think itwill make a “huge difference.”
Golson compared the extra day of voting to the old absentee daySG used to allow. Similar to federal election absentee days, SGwould let students vote on an extra day in case they were not goingto be available on election day.
But Golson said the Senate adopted a new election code last yearthat did not allow an absentee voting day.
The first referendum the Student Senate proposed calls for a$2.50 fee increase for campus concerts.
The bill said $2.00 will go to Groovin’ on the Grounds inthe spring and $.50 will go to the SG Concert Fee Fund for anystudent organization to request to “host a qualityconcert.”
“This is something that the senators wanted to leave up tothe students,” Golson said. “This is for students thatwant to have a big name on campus.”
The second referendum will allow for a $1 student fee increaseto ensure funding for The New York Times and the Wall StreetJournal.
Former SG President Allen Richey started the NewspaperInitiative program last year. It provides 855 national newspapers— 530 New York Times and 325 Wall Street Journals — atmultiple campus locations Monday through Friday.
Currently, a Coca-Cola grant pays for the newspapers, butUniversity College Center for Freshmen Year Sen. Chris Odinet, aco-author of the resolution, said the funding from the grant is notpermanent or guaranteed.
Odinet, a political science sophomore, said the bill willprovide for permanent funding, and also potentially provide morecopies of the papers or provide a third paper.
Golson said the grant is designed to fund new initiatives, so ifthe newspapers are funded by an alternate source, the grant canhelp fund other new proposals.
“We get so many new proposals from departments all thetime that want to start new initiatives,” Golson said.