Improving IU Student Association elections

By the time this article is published, the proverbial ink will have barely dried on the IU Student Association election ballots. Each year, tickets and their supporters come out in force on election days to advertise their platforms and garner votes.

I am all for maximizing the vote, and I recently wrote a column urging students to do so. But I do think it is worthwhile for IUSA and the Election Commission to regularly evaluate the way voting is done and the way IUSA is publicized to students.

First, the current way in which voting is done has the potential to harm small tickets.

Voting is done online. But tickets, rather than an independent organization, set up tables and laptops at established locations to get passersby to vote.

This can create a system where the tickets with the most manpower have a distinct advantage over those with fewer available campaign workers, even if those smaller tickets have great candidates and ideas.

Second, the Election Code mandates that there should be a campus-wide call-out during the second week of the spring semester. The Election Commission had its call-out in early February. While that is fairly early in the semester, it does only give students with a recent introduction to IUSA a month to put a ticket together.

A month goes by quickly in college time. Given the difficulty of making the decision to run for office, putting together a ticket and platform and organizing a campaign, I believe students could benefit by pushing the election call-out back even further, perhaps toward the end of the fall semester.

It may seem like jumping the gun to start organizing for an election barely a semester after one ticket is already coming into office, but it creates more opportunity for students who may be unfamiliar with IUSA to become acquainted with the organization earlier in the year and spend more time making a decision about running for office.

Putting the call-out so close to the campaign filing deadline may give an unintended advantage to individuals associated with incumbent IUSA administrations, who will be better prepared to throw their hat in the ring for the same office or a higher one.

A final word to anyone considering joining the race next year: It’s hard enough already to figure out a ticket’s principles, platforms and composition for the average student voter.

Try to give students a taste of your principles and platforms in your name. Past tickets have been named “Crimson,” “Supernova” and “iUnity.” Sounds catchy, but it’s not informative.

As a senior, this is the fourth IUSA election I have witnessed.

It’s always great to see a competitive election with great candidates and platforms. But the Election Commission, and IUSA at large, should be constantly striving to figure out how to improve the election process and how to get more students to join in.

­— danoconn@indiana.edu