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Feedback after ASM election varies

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Also by Joanna Pliner:

Labor group to give thanks (November 20, 2006)
Judiciary revokes SAE's status at university (April 6, 2006)
ASM weighs in on Halloween (September 4, 2006)
FH King to receive funding, after all (September 19, 2006)
UW says website causing 'ruckus' (October 9, 2006)

by Joanna Pliner

Friday, October 20, 2006

Polling stations closed for the University of Wisconsin Associated Students of Madison elections Thursday, but members of ASM have differing opinions on the success of the Fall 2006 election.

"I think we were more organized and more prepared," said Student Election Commission Chair Leah Moe said. "We planned for the worst and ended up a lot better off than we thought we would."

Moe said ASM was impressed with voter turnout this semester, adding she thinks more students voted this week than in last spring's elections.

However, ASM Chair Dylan Rath said he had a different impression at the end of the day Thursday. Rath said voter turnout was what ASM expected, but lower than what ASM would have liked.

Rath blamed the low voter turnout on the paper ballot system and the lack of campaign efforts. The Living Wage and Student Union Initiative referendums, as well as the Student Council candidates, did not promote themselves as much as in previous elections.

"I would have liked to see just more materials about their platforms and maybe just a little more competition between the candidates," Rath said.

UW freshman and ASM member Kurt Gosselin said people tend to be apathetic to the political scene in general, and said he does not expect any different of UW politics. The voter turnout will be decent, Gosselin predicted, but no different than previous semesters.

UW senior Molly Berman said she did not vote in the ASM elections this year because she has not kept track of the Student Council candidates or the referendums on the ballot.

"I haven't taken the time to have a comprehensive understanding of what they mean," Berman said.

UW Junior Katie Bissen said she does not know anybody with fervent opinions about the ASM elections and thinks the paper ballot system significantly lowered the voter turnout this year.

Although she was not as informed during this round of elections as last semester, Bissen said she was drawn to the polls because of the Living Wage referendum and Student Union Initiative.

"It's my right — or maybe more of a responsibility — as a Madison student to pay attention to what's going on and use my votes to help," Bissen said.

Bissen voted "No" for the Student Union Initiative, she said, because members of the Student Union Initiative should make more efforts to raise money rather than raising student-segregated fees.

"It will hurt the poor students, and financial aid doesn't cover seg fees," Bissen said. But she had different sentiments about the Living Wage referendum, saying, "I don't know as much about it, but in general I support living wages."

ASM members began tabulating the votes Thursday night, and are required to report the results to the UW Student Judiciary by Tuesday.

Moe said if the judiciary does not find any discrepancies with the ballots, they will give "preliminary certification" to the votes.

Several days are allocated for appeals in case inconsistencies do arise. Once the "appeal window" is closed, the votes are certified and the results are official.

Feedback

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Anonymous (October 20, 2006 @ 9:37am):

So why don't we know the results?

Anonymous (October 20, 2006 @ 10:23am):

So did ASM finally get the process "fixed" this time so the union tax passes?

Anonymous (October 20, 2006 @ 11:05am):

Thank God everything went smoothly!

Anonymous (October 20, 2006 @ 12:38pm):

Seg fees are covered by financial aid. In fact if you break it down, 48 dollars a semester is roughly 3 dollars a week. 96 dollars a semester is 6 dollars a week. That's one less coffee or going out one less time.

Anonymous (October 20, 2006 @ 1:59pm):

No, they are not covered by financial aid. That's the main reason this was a bad idea.

Anonymous (October 20, 2006 @ 4:12pm):

Listen jerk, I already hardly ever go out because I don't have the money. Unlike you, I don't have a wealthy mommy and daddy to pay for college for me. I have to work three jobs and take out loans to pay for everything.

Anonymous (October 20, 2006 @ 6:57pm):

students are paying $91 million over 30 years, that is a hell of a lot of money. An extra $96 per semester is a 25% increase in Seg fees.

Anonymous (October 21, 2006 @ 7:04pm):

If people really want to stop the referendum from passing, sue the student government.

They significantly breeched election laws by campaigning for the initiative in the building that was the polling place.

State law expressly orders that no campaigning will happen within a certain distance of polling place and even student government elections are bound by these laws.

Yes its a technicality, but the fact that they had those pro initiative posters all over the union, while the union served as the main polling place means they broke the law.

Anonymous (October 22, 2006 @ 2:05pm):

The law keeps individual candidates from campaiging at the polling place, not the referendums.

Anonymous (October 22, 2006 @ 10:38pm):

See, I happen to remember that one of the polling places was College Library and not the Memorial Union. It seems only logical that the Union would have posters all over the place. Perhaps this is why the voting did not take place there.