IUSA looks to change election code next week

The IU Student Association will propose a new elections code to its congress Tuesday, which has major changes from the previous code that will benefit the students and the candidates, said IUSA Elections Coordinator Derek Molter.\nThe new code was a result of the controversy from last year's elections. Complaints ranged from candidates sending mass campaign e-mails to campaigning in the food court. The new code clarifies some of these previously undefined guidelines.\nThere are four major changes from last year that are on the proposed election code.\nIn the new code, Section 503 states a candidate may only send an e-mail with one address in the "to" field. This would not allow mass e-mails to be sent out to students who could misuse the other addresses in the "to" field.\nSection 507 explains the candidates have to campaign during the hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., thus eliminating people campaigning late at night. \nDerek Molter, the elections coordinator for IUSA, said the students will benefit the most from this new code.\n"The one that I think students will be most interested in is that candidates can only campaign in the dorms between the times 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.," he said. \nSection 701 clarifies any violation of the election code will be addressed using a points system. Each violation would be assigned a different number, with the higher the number for the worse violations. Molter said this system would make it easier to bring some violations to attention. He said there will be a new point system added to the code.\n"The biggest change is that it goes to a point system and it makes it more easily to identify extreme violations from the more mundane ones," IUSA Vice President Grant McFann said.\nChief Justice of the IUSA Supreme Court Brian Clifford doesn't agree with Molter. \n"There are a lot of things that look good on paper but don't work out," he said. "When there was a dollar amount, it was easier for the groups to realize their violations." \nSection 903 states the unofficial results of the election may be made public once the election is over opposed to the old code not allowing the results to be released for two or three weeks. \nIUSA President Casey Cox said another change is the unofficial results will be available to everyone as soon as the election is over. \n"It took so long before because the results were not released until the Supreme Court has approved them," he said.\nMcFann said it will make the process a lot smother than what it once was. Also, he said it will bring more legitimacy to the IUSA. \n"(The new elections code) is going to take a lot of controversy out of the election," he said. \nMolter said a committee was formed and met many times during the summer to write the code. \nCox said these code changes are very rare.\n"To my knowledge there has always been some sort of small changes made to the code," he said. "This is probably the biggest overhaul of the code in the time that I have been here." \n-- Contact staff writer Mike Malik at mjmalik@indiana.edu.