It was a day dominated by waiting — waiting by students in line to vote, waiting by Student Government officials as they dealt with the complaints of the day and, ultimately, waiting by the candidates for the election results.
Wednesday’s SG election featured the debut of a new voting system that allowed students to vote at any of eight locations around campus. In the past, students were required to vote in locations designated for each college.
The system did not prove to be flawless. Long voting lines were present at many locations on campus, and turnout was about the same as in previous recent elections.
SG Elections Commissioner Zach Howser said 3,023 students voted, about 400 more than in last spring’s election but fewer than in the spring 2001 election.
Howser said SG tried to allocate computer resources according to expected turnout.
“We banked on people voting in the Quad and CEBA,” Howser said. “We overestimated how many would go to CEBA.”
Howser said though students voting in the Quad often faced a wait of at least half an hour, lines were virtually nonexistent at CEBA.
“There wasn’t really a way for us to know how the new system would work until we tried it,” Howser said.
Students who voted had mixed reactions about the efficiency of the new system.
“It is slow as hell out here,” said biological sciences junior Eddie Lolis, who voted in the Quad. “I’d rather walk to the basic sciences building and take five minutes to vote [under the old system] than stand in this line.”
Lolis said an online voting system through PAWS accounts accessed anywhere would be an improvement on the current system. Other students agreed.
“I think it would be a lot better if they made it possible for people to vote in their own homes,” said political science junior Travis Gautreau.
Several candidates, including Jay Buller, Robert Lay, Allen Richey and Jason Wesley, said voter turnout was good but could have been higher.
“Three thousand is a great number. I’m happy with it, but it could have been higher if the lines were shorter,” Richey said.
Howser said turnout may have been higher under the old system, but the new system is still “an infant.”
“We moved to a computer system, but we’re still dealing with a human system and human error,” Howser said.
Despite the large number of students voting, Howser said PAWS did not experience any problems.
SG Director of Information Technology Guy Pyrzak said SG was unable to use state voting machines because local elections are approaching.
Pyrzak said SG will try to make improvements to the current system before next week’s runoffs, including making more computers available.