ASG elections ended less than two weeks ago, but the new executive board is already looking to the future. Revisions to the election guidelines will be brought to a vote tonight in ASG Senate.
The time was right to re-consider the guidelines, ASG Secretary-Parliamentarian Will Upton said.
“We decided to go through with it now because it’s fresh in our heads,” the Weinberg junior said. “I felt that it was better to get everyone together and work on it and say to Senate that these were some problems that we have seen.”
Proposed changes include allotting budgets and flyers for runoff elections, expanding electronic campaigning to include Facebook groups, and clarifying the consequences of violating Center for Student Involvement rules and Evanston laws.
The rules committee, which Upton heads, released the changes during last week’s session. Upton said he sought advice from those involved with this year’s elections to amend guidelines he thought were outdated.
“The recommendations came mostly from the election commission, and several candidates suggested improvements to how things were set up,” Upton said. “What to classify Facebook as – is it a Web site? E-mails? Listserv?”
Though all candidates were invited to the rules committee meeting, Nate Perkins, student services vice president, said he was the only one to attend in person.
The McCormick sophomore said he suggested the extra material for the runoff elections, he said.
In the past, candidates were allotted a budget for the general election and the runoff together, meaning candidates who spent all their funds on the general election would have no resources remaining for the runoff.
In Perkins’ case, a two-person race not expected to go to a runoff, the current guidelines could present a problem, he said.
“When there’s a race that’s not expected to go to a runoff, it’s definitely something you don’t plan for,” he said.
Perkins’ opponent in the election, Harry Vijayaraghavan, said he shares Perkins’ view of the runoff process.
“I would never have seen the runoff coming for my election,” the Weinberg junior said. “So I would consider it quite fair to expect that there’s a separate budget rather than the carryover from the first election.”
The new language regarding Facebook use was a clarification of the earlier rules regarding electronic campaigning, Perkins said.
“There were a lot of questions that were asked about Facebook that the election commission had to come to a decision on,” Perkins said. “It’s just more explicit clarification for candidates and their teams for any questions that might arise.”
Regardless of this round of changes, the rules committee will meet again before the election next year to discuss further changes to the guidelines, Upton said.
“Within the constitution, it says that the rules committee is to conduct an annual review,” Upton said. “There will be another review before the election.”
