USG changes spring elections schedule

The USG changed the schedule of its spring elections to extend the campaign period from one week to two weeks, the USG announced on its website.

The schedule for USG elections changed this year in order to give candidates more time to campaign, students more time to learn about the issues and the election managers more time to ensure that all aspects of the election are in line with the Elections Handbook, chief elections manager Rachel Nam ’15 said.

The other elections managers are U-Councilor Sarah Wiley ’13 and University Student Life Committee chair Greg Smith ’15.

The first change to the schedule extended the campaign period from one week to two weeks, starting on the first day of registration, which was last Sunday, April 7.

“Before, there was only one week of campaigning, and we thought that a lot of students found it very stressful to cram it all into one week,” Nam said. “So we lengthened it to two weeks and also that again gives them more time to get to really know the voters and for the voters to get to know the candidates better.”

As usual, the candidates gathered signatures for their petitions during the course of last week. They were then also allowed to campaign while asking students to sign petitions.

The second change to the schedule was to the start and end dates of registration.

In the past, the USG would announce the election on a Monday, and students interested in running for office would begin to collect signatures that day and have until the following Sunday to submit petitions. The new schedule initiates registration on a Sunday and gives students until Saturday to collect enough signatures and fill out the candidate registration form.

“One of the core goals of USG this year is to be accountable, so I wanted to make sure the election managers had ample time to review the petitions and make sure that all the information that we would release to the public would be accurate, and we wouldn’t run into any last-minute errors or run the risk of presenting inaccurate information because we didn’t have enough time,” Nam said.

Nam said she had plenty of time with the new schedule to look over each of the petitions and double-check that every petition had all of the necessary components before sending the information to USG president Shawon Jackson ’15 for publication on the USG’s website Sunday.

“I feel more confident that what I'm going to present to the undergraduate student body is accurate and reliable information,” she said.

The changes to the schedule have not deterred students from running for office. According to Nam, 18 students filled out petitions for U-Councilor this year, which is more than the 12 students who ran last year and the 16 who ran the year before under the timeline of the old schedule.

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Each of the positions for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Class Governments — president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and social chair — are uncontested in this election with the exception of the Class of 2016 vice president, which has two candidates, and the Class of 2015 social chair, which does not have a candidate.

Since registration ended last Saturday, April 13, the candidates will now have another week to campaign before voting starts on April 22 at 12 p.m.

“My inclination is that the two-week campaign period will be good in that things are more spaced out,” Jackson said. “At the same time though, I definitely understand that people who are running for maybe a competitive spot have to constantly be thinking about it for a few weeks. So it’s kind of good and bad, depending on how conscientious a person is.”

The change in the registration start and end dates have not yet been made to the Elections Handbook, and Nam said the decision regarding whether to implement the change permanently will come after the election finishes and the senate can debrief on the positives and negatives of the changed schedule.