Although campaigning won’t begin again for almost a year, students on Associated Student Government’s Rules Committee already have suggestions to improve guidelines for next spring’s campuswide ASG elections.

Members of the committee met Tuesday night to discuss possible changes to ASG election campaign rules, which the committee is responsible for writing each Winter Quarter.

Noreen Khalid, ASG rules chairwoman, said holding the meeting right after the election allowed senators to discuss possible reforms with the election fresh in their minds.

“A lot of times we don’t know how to fix something until it’s broken,” said Khalid, a Communication junior, “and we don’t see what’s broken until after elections.”

High on the committee’s list of improvements was a suggestion for the Election Commission to design the online ballot earlier and present a binding plan at an ASG Senate meeting before campaigning starts. This year, the final decision to place both a no confidence and a write-in option on the ballot was not finalized until two days before the election.

Committee members also discussed whether write-in candidates should be allowed. The option originally was eliminated this year before campaigning started, but senators reversed the decision the week before elections.

Matt Hall, who as ASG secretary/parliamentarian serves on the committee, said he is in favor of write-ins because they show that students want to voice their opinions.

“People are taking the time to say, ‘I’m not happy with this and I want to protest in one way,'” said Hall, a Communication sophomore.

But Avery Maron, this year’s Election Commission chairman, finds fault with the option and said write-in candidates can flout the guidelines official candidates must follow and students who cast write-in votes do so “solely for humor.”

Gia DiGiacobbe, an Amnesty International senator who served on the Election Commission, said trying to make write-in candidates conform to the rules might prove impossible.

“There’s just no way to make ‘Respectable Dildo’ follow the election guidelines,” said DiGiacobbe, an Education sophomore.

Other changes proposed at Tuesday’s meeting included banning nonverbal campaigning — such as taping fliers to lecture hall seats — in academic areas. Verbal campaigning is not allowed in classrooms under the current rules.

Committee members also suggested increasing the Election Commission’s budget so members could manage election publicity, restructuring the ASG-sponsored debates to attract larger audiences and clarifying the rule that individual student groups can endorse candidates without being involved in coalitions.

Last year’s rules forum prompted changes such as linking candidates’ Web sites to HereAndNow and ending the practice of making candidates remove their posters before election day.

Tamara Kagel, the outgoing ASG academic vice president who was defeated in last Tuesday’s presidential race, said she thought this year’s guideline changes helped candidates better understand what was required of them. Kagel was required to issue a public apology last year for violating campaign guidelines in her AVP bid.

“The decrease in violations proved that improvements were needed and were made,” said Kagel, a Communication junior. “I think that things went off more smoothly this year.”

Khalid said she thought her committee’s members addressed all possible concerns, but new problems likely would come up.

“Every time you fix something,” she said, “something else breaks with these guidelines.”