With the spring Student Government Association (SGA) Executive Elections rapidly approaching, SGA met this week to approve the Committee on Student Elections' (CSE) newly revised constitution.
Though the revisions were officially passed Tuesday, plans to amend and add bylaws regarding student elections had been in place since the summer and were worked on heavily this semester.
As an external branch of the SGA, the CSE oversees the Freshman Senate, Executive SGA and Upperclassmen Senate elections each year, and is charged with the maintenance of the constitution and the handling of campaign infractions and election appeals. This year's nearly complete overhaul of the previous CSE constitution may largely be seen as a response to last year's executive election in which all nine candidates were disqualified, leading to a revote.
SGA President, Sonny Chandrasekhar, who took part in last year's disputed election, believes that the problem was that "no one knew what was going on. There were double standards for certain people; some requirements were waived for a select number of people, and different information was given out to different candidates. Not everyone got a copy of the constitution, and it was run very loosey goosey."
Contributing to these problems was perhaps the constitution's greatest flaw: its vagueness. Candidates misinterpreted rules, and a great many of these rules could not be enforced due to a lack of structure in the constitution. In order to address such issues, the CSE and members of SGA worked together to draft a list of changes to last year's election rules and regulations that would provide more organization and transparency to the election process.
Sophomore Alieu Kanu, CSE chair, said that the major effects of the amendments and additions will be to "clearly state what constitutes a fair and tasteful campaign and specifically inform candidates of what they may or may not do during the campaigning period." The goal of the revisions, according to Chandrasekhar, is to "maintain the integrity of elections and encourage clear communication." The revisions have served to greatly clarify almost every aspect of the old constitution.
"[In the updated constitution] all rules are explicit ?- there is no room for interpretation," Chandrasekhar said.
In a marked change from past revisions, an administrator was brought in to help oversee the entire process in order to make sure that the revisions went smoothly.
One new aspect of the CSE constitution has been the addition of numerous bylaws regarding the use of technology in campaigning.
Though the CSE will be creating one Facebook group to serve as publicity for all the candidates and as a single source of information for student voters, candidates will be prohibited from using their personal Facebook, Myspace or other social networking accounts to publicize their candidacies.
Also illegal will be the use of mass text messages or e-mails in order to solicit votes; anything sent out electronically and by paper to solicit votes will have to be personally addressed to the recipient in order to reduce spamming.
Kanu explains that these changes were necessary in light of rapidly changing technology. "With Web sites such as Facebook, finding evidence for a violation of rules becomes very difficult, because candidates would be able to block out certain individuals from seeing information, and the regulation of such campaigning would be much more difficult," he said.
Many changes to the constitution are also regarding the clarification of campaigning rules. For example, since the flyers to be put up in off-campus housing cannot be approved by Res Life, they must first be sent to the CSE for approval. "Dormstorming," or soliciting votes by knocking on doors, is prohibited, as is slipping letters under doors.
Other revisions ensure that all candidates turn in required forms and observe strict deadlines in order to be eligible for election. The new constitution spells out the specifics for filing complaints and violations, and appeals are now overseen by students. Amendments to the constitution now require a two-thirds vote from first the CSE and then the SGA; these rules were observed in the actual passing of the amendments themselves, a good precedent for the revised constitution.
The success of this past fall's Freshman Senate Election may be an indication of how the spring elections will turn out. With a change in leadership this school year, the election was unusually smooth, with no disqualifications and no appeals filed and a record percentage of voter turnout. "Though there have historically always been problems in student council elections, I am encouraged by the fact that [this election will be run by] the same people. The freshman elections went off without a hitch," Chethan Mallela, ECC chair and senior class senator, said.
Still, Mallela says that the coming election's success may be impossible to predict. "You can't put all of the blame last year on the CSE; there were some circumstances that occurred that had never seen before." All of these measures will be set in place for the upcoming election, and only time will tell whether the revised constitution will bring the transparency and change the CSE hopes for.
