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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

IUSA election season to begin

Members of the IU Student Association elections commission reviewed the general election process and timeline for potential candidates during a meeting last Thursday.

The IUSA general election will take place April 8 and 9.

Students interested in running must run as a ticket, not as an individual. A ticket must contain a president, vice president for administration, vice president for congress, treasurer and at least one congressional seat, IUSA elections chair Aparna Srinath said.

Tickets interested in running must register by 5 p.m. March 9 at the Student Life and Learning office in the Indiana Memorial Union.

Three tickets — Amplify IUSA, INtouch for IUSA and UNIFY for IUSA — have already informally declared their intention to run.

IUSA comprises three branches: the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch.

The executive branch is comprised of a president, vice president for administration, vice president for congress, treasurer and chief of staff.

The IUSA Congress, members of which represent various academic or residential constituencies, forms the legislative branch.

The judicial branch comprises the IUSA Supreme Court and the recently reformed IUSA elections ?commission.

Under the old system, the elections commission was not placed under any given branch. The IUSA president selected the head of the elections commission, who then selected the other four ?members.

These members then remained part of the elections commission for only one election cycle.

Under the new system, the elections commission is placed under the IUSA Supreme Court. Members of the IUSA executive branch and the IUSA Supreme Court jointly selected the nine members of the elections commission.

These members will then remain part of the elections commission until they ?graduate.

When the current members of the elections commission graduate, they will self-select new members to replace them. The IUSA Congress, however, will have ?final approval.

“When it’s not election season, they can work on improving outreach about IUSA and raising awareness of IUSA and the process of the elections, that way more people are interested in IUSA and aware of IUSA and have time early on to form a ticket if they so choose,” ?Srinath said.

Candidates cannot personally contribute more than $1,000 to a campaign, while non-candidates cannot personally contribute more than $250, Katy Flanigan, member of the IUSA elections ?commission, said.

Total campaign expenditures cannot exceed $3,000 and tickets must periodically disclose all campaign expenditures to the elections ?commission.

On April 8 and 9, members of the elections commission and volunteers for the elections commission will run polling stations at three locations: near the Woodburn clock tower, near Dunn Meadow and on the corner of Tenth Street and Fee Lane, Flanigan said.

Any individual affiliated with a ticket cannot be within ten feet of any polling ?station.

Students can vote at a polling station from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. either day or online from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. either day. Students can vote for a ticket or for an ?individual.

The elections commission hopes to send an email to every undergraduate student with a link to vote, ?Flanigan said.

Should that plan fall through due to logistics, the elections commission hopes to send an email to every undergraduate student with a link to a website, such as OnCourse or Canvas. Students could then access the link to vote from the website.

“Students are encouraged to vote on the caliber of their tickets and their platform, rather than anything else,” Srinath said.

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