This past week, the Undergraduate Students Association Council
approved changes to its election code in a 7-3 vote. These changes
will have a significant impact on the upcoming election.
Online voting was initially approved by the council last year.
It uses less student money, is more efficient, and makes voting
more accessible to students than voting by paper ballots. Students
could choose to vote from home, or in the traditional way ““
on campus ““ at designated polling stations.
The process worked flawlessly last year. It is considered to be
extremely safe, allowed results to be tabulated quickly and
accurately, and it didn’t require the staffing of multiple
polling stations. The only major concern has been over IP address
delays, which prevented some off-campus residents from voting
within a few minutes of anyone they shared an IP address with in
their house or apartment.
Despite this problem, the choice between online elections and
more costly paper elections lies in the hands of the council again
this year. Every year, the council must vote again to approve
online voting. I encourage the council to remain on the progressive
path set last year, and I encourage students to keep their eyes and
ears open over the next few weeks as this decision is made.
But last week’s election code amendment threatens the
accessibility of elections, as it creates a restriction on voting
hours. Online voting takes place through MyUCLA, a 24-hour
operation; thus, there is no justifiable reason to limit voting
hours.
The argument presented at council for applying time restrictions
is that such action will make USAC elections more like “real
world” elections. But UCLA clearly has a unique online
process that works for campus elections, so there is no reason to
attempt to replicate national elections and encumber ourselves with
their disadvantages.
Less than 6,000 votes (or 24.9 percent of undergraduates) put me
and all my fellow councilmembers into office last year. It hardly
makes sense to do anything that would impede, rather than
encourage, voting.
Furthermore, limiting voting hours would create an inconvenience
for some, but more importantly, it would discriminate against
students who make their education and/or jobs a priority. Many
students not only go to class, but also work, commute and must take
care of their families. For those students, late night voting may
be the best option.
The argument was presented at council that we should be
encouraging the most educated and involved students to vote, and
these people will find time during standard election hours. I am
confident the UCLA population will reject this and realize that
just as all students are represented by USAC, everyone should have
equal opportunity to vote. Last year, almost 600 votes were cast
during the time that now would be off limits.
A clause was also added to make election code apply to any
“candidate or group Web sites accessible on campus.”
This means virtually any Web site mentioning anything about the
election (sanctioned or not) could be used to penalize the
candidate mentioned. This potentially includes not only group or
candidate Web sites, which for many students, are the best way to
make the candidates’ issues more accessible, but even
weblogs.
This limits student access to the real issues. It’s also a
logistical nightmare for the election board to chase down every
code infraction on the Web, and it’s almost impossible to
fairly control materials on the Internet.
Voters want to be educated. They want to vote on issues, not
fliers or catchy slogans. Active campaigning on campus is limited
because of the disruption and media overload it would cause over an
extended period. Passive campaigning mediums, like Web sites, are
the best way for candidates to get their issues out prior to the
limited time allotted for active campus campaigning under the
election code. Passive informational efforts like Web sites are not
the same as active campaigning on campus, and they cannot and
should not be regulated as such.
Students have the right to an election that operates in their
best interests and conserves their student fees as much as
possible.
Husse-Jerome is the USAC financial supports
commissioner.