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31 seats open in ASM spring election
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by Michael Gendall
Tuesday, April 5, 2005
The Associated Students of Madison’s spring elections begin today, which allows University of Wisconsin students three days to vote on 31 representatives and two student referendums that would be implemented during the fall semester.
One referendum will determine whether ASM will continue to support the United Council, which ASM vice Chair Cedric Lawson said is a state student advocacy group which represents UW System students and fights, among other things, for lower college tuitions.
“Every two years the constitution requires us to put on the spring ballot whether or not ASM would like to be a member of the United Council,” ASM Student Election Commission member Tim Leonard said. “Membership in the United Council requires the consent of the student body.”
If the referendum passes, the United Council would again be “funded through a mandatory refundable fee” of $2 per semester, according to ASM Chair Emily McWilliams. Students not wishing to participate would be able to write to the United Council and receive their money back, according to McWilliams.
McWilliams said the United Council was founded in 1960 and UW support has been consistent over the years.
The second referendum, if passed, would increase segregated fees to improve the Memorial Union and Union South. Wisconsin Union officials say both buildings are in need of substantial renovations and point to other UW System schools as evidence for UW’s Wisconsin Union being under funded.
In addition, 31 of the 33 ASM seats are up for election, Leonard said, with the only exceptions being the two freshman seats elected last fall.
According to SEC member Emily Schwartz, the 33 seats are distributed among all of the different schools on campus, including graduate and professional schools.
Voting students are allotted seven votes to distribute among the candidates to determine the representatives of their school. College of Letters & Science students, for instance, will select from 17 candidates to fill 12 open seats.
Lawson acknowledged the large number of candidates, many of whom are no more than names to the student body, can lead to some confusion concerning exactly whom students are voting for.
To help solve the relative anonymity of the candidates, Lawson suggested that students visit the ASM website — www.asm.wisc.edu — to gather information.
“Go to the ASM website and [the candidate’s] information is on the web,” Lawson said.
Lawson added many candidates are also running in groups that, similar to political parties, provide an indication of the candidate’s platform.
“These groups have websites. That is another way for students to get to know who is running,” Lawson said.
Despite the efforts of ASM and other groups on campus to make the elections a user-friendly system, student turnout in past elections has ranged from eight to 17 percent, according to Lawson.
“People generally do show a disinterest,” Lawson said. “We just haven’t found a way [to increase student turnout] yet.”
Students can vote by either going to a campus polling place or by visiting vote.asm.wisc.edu between April 5 and April 7.
Polling places will be at Memorial Union, Union South and various other locations around campus, McWilliams said.
