Northwestern’s Associated Student Government rejected a proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday that would give the election commission the right to alter the date of presidential elections.
The final vote of 14 in favor, nine opposed and two abstentions fell just short of the two-thirds majority necessary to amend the ASG constitution. Former ASG Senator Dan Tully, one of three presidential candidates in the upcoming election, proposed the amendment before spring break to avoid conflict with religious holidays during the 10-day campaign season. ASG Senator Aaron Zelikovich sponsored the amendment.
“This amendment would allow students to observe religious holidays for Easter, Holy Friday and Passover,” Tully, a Weinberg junior, said. “As a group that represents students, I think it is fundamentally important for ASG to accommodate all religious beliefs.”
Tully argued it was unfair to force students to choose between religious convictions and political aspirations. He pointed to NU administrators’ recent decision to delay the 2012-2013 academic year to accommodate Yom Kippur.
But Tully, along with other ASG members who supported the amendment, encountered difficulty.
“I see many things that are wrong with this amendment,” said Weinberg sophomore Tori Zuzelo, a senator for A&O Productions. “It brings up the issue of which religious observance is more important. Some students celebrate Shabbat every Friday, so where should we draw the line?”
Communication junior Steven Monacelli, who is also on the ballot, said these religious aspects made it difficult for him to support the amendment, even though he is not a senator and could not vote.
“It’s fine to move the date of the election, but only as long as it doesn’t prioritize one religion over another,” Monacelli said.
In response to these criticisms, Weinberg junior Ian Coley said the amendment was not exclusively religious in nature. Coley, an off-campus senator, argued “broader issues,” like natural disasters or campus tragedies, could postpone an ASG election.
ASG President Austin Young said the debate had become too focused on religion and argued that moving presidential voting would also result in a scheduling crisis in other elections.
“One of the most important issues is looking at the timeline of how this affects the rest of the elections in ASG,” Young said. “If you move the election back a week, then even at the fastest possible speed, you will only get executive applications out by week seven or week eight. Any further, and you effectively lose all of spring quarter.”
As the law currently stands, presidential campaigns will begin the second week of Spring Quarter.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated when ASG presidential campaigns begin this year. They start the second week of Spring Quarter. The Daily regrets the error.
