In a raucous meeting, USG approves several measures to reform elections

After nearly two hours of intense debate, the USG senate approved measures Monday night clarifying ill-defined elections rules that have provoked disagreement between candidates and the USG elections committee in the past.

Beginning with the upcoming spring class officer elections, USG candidates will be informed of their right to appeal elections committee decisions — a provision that technically existed but has not been used in recent years. The same proposal was rejected last semester at the close of Spencer Merriweather '00's administration, largely because a runoff election for the vice presidency was in progress at the time.

Some USG members, however, had doubts about the appeals proposal. USG vice president Spence Miller '02 criticized the plan as being difficult to execute, saying that the USG would be forced to meet repeatedly and inconveniently during elections to rule on appeals. "If we can't meet, that is unfair to the candidate," he said.

But USG president PJ Kim '01 deflected such criticism by quickly putting the appeals process proposal to a vote. "We can't preclude any kind of reform because there might be problems in the future," Kim said after the meeting.

The elections reform proposal was written at Kim's request by former USG senator Jo Chen '00 and U-Councilor Jim DeRose '01, who was disqualified for elections rules violations when he ran for freshman class president in 1997. "I would have appealed freshman year," DeRose said in an interview yesterday.

Endorsements

The senate also specified which student groups on campus could endorse candidates, but decided against permitting class officers and fraternities and sororities from announcing endorsements.

The USG also inserted a day of campaigning into the elections schedule before runoff elections take place. In past elections, candidates were not allowed to campaign between the original election and the runoff.

The elections procedure changes were meant to address "the campaign issues that come up year after year," Kim said.

A proposal that would have raised campaign spending limits from $25 per candidate to $40 was defeated. USG members opposing the proposal said it could be unfair to students from low-income families. "Forty dollars may really prevent some people from running on this campus," USG academic chair Jeff Gelfand said.