If you have voted in the past few Student Government elections, you probably noticed a new computer system along with longer than usual lines at many polling locations last week. SG enacted this new system to allow students to vote at any location, no longer making them trek across campus to their college to vote.
SG candidates and voters have long complained about SG making students vote at particular locations. I was happy to see a new system in place that gave students the freedom to vote wherever their schedule may place them on campus during election day.
But the new system did not fix every problem and even brought about some new ones. Many people complained last week about how the Election Board ran the general election. Some of the biggest complaints were that the polls opened about a half hour late, an engineering candidate was left off the ballot for approximately one hour, a candidate who withdrew from the race was left on the ballot, confusing the outcome of the Athletic Council race, students had to wait in line for more than 30 minutes at many voting locations and the results were announced nearly an hour and a half late.
“With a new system there are always new problems to encounter,” said SG presidential candidate Allen Richey. “It’s a constant in the elections that polls open up late, so that didn’t surprise me.”
Polls did usually open up late in SG elections, and a new computer system is not likely to fix that reoccurring problem. But a new system with old rules may have compounded the problems that come with learning a new system.
The election code was designed around the old way of voting, and one of the many things it spells out is the locations of voting polls. The prescribed voting locations do not work with locations of computer labs, which is where the new system would thrive.
In many voting locations, such as Johnston Hall, students had to wait in line to use one laptop to cast their votes. This in turn caused long lines and turned away many who were wishing to vote.
“There were numerous people who came in to vote and left after they were told they had to wait 35 to 40 minutes,” said former student senator Paul Wattingy, who spent 35 minutes waiting to vote in Johnston Hall.
I too, along with a friend, went to Johnston Hall to vote and left because I had a class 25 minutes later. So we went to Tureaud Hall to cast our vote and still had to wait 20 minutes. I still ended up missing class.
Can we expect students to spend 30 minutes waiting to vote? There is no doubt the lines had a negative effect on turnout. Turnout was higher than last year’s general election, but Student Government Elections Commissioner Zach Howser said he expected a higher turnout due to the presence of three full tickets.
“I think we could have had more,” Howser said. “People wanted to vote.”
It is hard to say if this helped one ticket or hurt another, but there is no doubt it did have some impact.
“Any times the lines are that long, a significant number of people choose not to vote, and that can impact an election,” said SG presidential candidate Jay Buller.
The election board has made the changes they can to help with today’s election. It has created a spillover for Quad voters in the library and acquired additional computers to use in other locations. It also has taken efforts to reduce the wait for results. So lines should be shorter, but they may still be present. I encourage students to do what they can and make an effort to vote today.
But if SG hopes to have higher turnouts and involve more of the student body, they must change the way elections are run.
“Either we need to change the system of where we can vote or go back to the machines,” Howser said. “The way we did it last week isn’t working.”
I believe the new system can work much better than what was used in the past. The election code needs to be rewritten or students will continue to be driven into apathy.