The superiority of online voting in UCLA elections was proven
last Wednesday and Thursday when 4,967 students logged onto the
my.ucla Web site to cast a vote in the Undergraduate Students
Association Programming Referendum.
The turnout was higher than was experienced during last
spring’s general elections and should be used as a precedent
for the expansion of online voting in the future.
The official arguments against online voting have centered
around security concerns and voters’ guarantee to privacy.
But there are security measures already in place to protect the
my.ucla site from being hacked into.
As opposed to paper elections that require students to be on
campus during voting hours, online elections allow students to log
on and vote from virtually any place at any time. Most of the
functions of this university ““ witness the URSA Web site
““ have been converted to function electronically for exactly
the same reason.
The my.ucla site is no less secure than any other Web site
““ reasons can be found to call anything
“insecure.” If a Web site can be made secure enough for
students to file their financial aid documents, income tax forms
and change their enrollment status, they should be able to vote in
a USAC election by the same means.