Associated Student Government approved Election Commission candidacy guidelines and Student Group Apportionment Committee timeline at its Wednesday Senate meeting.

The Election Commission, consisting of nine elected students, coordinates ASG elections, publicizes debates and reviews campaigns among its other duties listed in the guidelines. Changes took into account limitations brought on by the pandemic such as reviewing virtual campaign material, using electronic petition forms and limiting campaign expenditures to $200.

The Commission also extended the deadline for submitting ballot candidacy, an amendment made since the last Senate meeting.

Weinberg sophomore Joe Maino, outgoing Election Commission Chair of Analytics, said the extension is unnecessary. Since petitions this year need half as many signatures, he said the extension provides no added benefit and only poses a hindrance for the Commission.

“I personally am skeptical of this,” Maino said. “If I (were) just a member of the Commission myself, I would want to know in advance who the candidates are. That way, I could plan the debates, I could be in contact with the campaigns (and) make sure everything’s going smoothly.”

Still, the guidelines were unanimously approved with the deadline extension. The two-day voting period is expected to commence April 15.

The Student Group Apportionment Committee timeline was unanimously approved. Every winter, the Senate must approve the timeline for the process of allocating seats for student groups in ASG. The timeline was amended to remove Chair for Student Activities, a position that does not exist this year, from the voting members list for seat allocations.

All student groups seeking a Senate seat must reapply except for For Members Only, Northwestern’s Black Student Alliance, which enshrined its Senate seat earlier this quarter.

“Usually only a few groups end up being cut,” ASG Chief of Staff and Weinberg junior Elizabeth Sperti said. “Last year it was three, and one of them wasn’t an official student group, which was why we couldn’t accept them.”

Applications will be released Friday.

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Twitter: @amittal27

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