Speaks Out

The Graduate Student Association held their elections
online this week. The Undergraduate Student Association Council
decided not to have online elections and instead are doing them by
the traditional paper ballot method. Do you believe elections
should be online? Julie Pai First-year
Biology “I think that elections should be done the
traditional way because so many people can just vote carelessly
online. But if you go out to the voting place, it shows that
you’re actually concerned. Of course the voter turnout will
be lower, but the people who care will be those who will vote. If I
were a candidate, I really wouldn’t like the idea that
anybody can just go online and vote without being informed.”
Laneia Moore Fourth-year English and African
American studies “Voting is too interactive to be automated,
and voting online takes away the essence of it. It’s a social
experience; computers take away that intimacy. Voting online would
be totally contradictory to the meaning of voting; it doesn’t
make any sense. Life is about interacting with people and going to
the voting booths. I’m happy with the decision.”
Richard Quitasol First-year Psychobiology
“If people were willing to vote, doing it online would be
easier access-wise because they wouldn’t have to come all the
way to campus. Voting would be better online if they also provide
information on the candidates. That way, you can study all the
candidates and look at what their positions and ideas are; in that
case, that would make it better. We have the technology and access
to computers to make this possible.” Karla
Martinez Second-year Undeclared “It may be more
efficient if you do it online, but at the same time we have to
guard against discrepencies. However, I think having elections
online would increase the number of people who vote, because they
can do it while they’re checking e-mail or other things they
would usually do anyway. It’s faster for people this way, and
you can do it at home.” Nick Casillas
Second-year Music “I don’t see why we can’t have
both. When you do it both ways, you can vote on your own time and
not have it interfere with classes. If it’s just done on
campus, you have to deal with going to the polls. You can also get
more educated online before voting, instead of having to decide at
the polls based on fliers people hand you. I don’t see why we
have to deal with paper at all; we’re in the computer
age.” Geoff Bell Third-year Sociology
“I don’t know whether online voting would be more
efficient. I’ve always seen it as more problematic in terms
of security issues. It’s a lot easier for someone else to log
on and use your password online than the in-person experience where
you have to be there to show identification. While it may be more
convenient, I think it would still be more problematic than
anything else.” Speaks Out compiled by Cuauhtemoc Ortega,
Daily Bruin Senior Staff. Photos by Chris Backley, Daily Bruin
Staff.