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ASM moves constitution vote forward
Wright cites primary election date, extra time as reasons for moving date to Feb. 23-24
BOBBY BREITENBACH/Herald photo
Constitutional Committee Chair Jeff Wright (left) and SSFC Chair Kurt Gosselin discuss the referendum date.
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Pending approval from the Student Judiciary, Associated Students of Madison announced at the Constitutional Committee meeting Tuesday night the final election date for their newly proposed constitution will be moved back to Feb. 23 and 24.
According to Constitutional Committee Chair Jeff Wright, the reason for the change was to avoid conflict with the primary election scheduled for Feb. 17, the original date suggested for the vote on the constitution.
“There are a lot of candidates that will be out there voting,” Wright said. “Having a vote yes or no section on top of [the primary election] would be an information overload for students that could and should be avoided.”
Wright added having both elections on the same day would be an “informational burden.” He hopes the date change will hopefully result in an increase in voter turnout.
Since the bylaws aren’t due until two weeks before the final vote, Wright said pushing the election back gives ASM more time to perfect its amendment.
“Though we were prepared to have the bylaws ready by the original date, having a little more time to visit the bylaws is of course welcome,” Wright said.
According to Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Hannah Karns, pushing the date back will also help ensure an effective campaign.
Karns said she supports the choice to move the date because it gives students more time to become informed about the proposed constitutional changes.
“I think some people are still unsure about their decision, mainly because they don’t have accurate information.” Karns said. “The more time we have to get correct information out to students, the more people will see the benefits of the new constitution and the more people we’ll get to vote yes.”
Wright said the Students for ASM Reform Committee met yesterday to discuss campaigning efforts to help maximize voter turnout and develop ways to convince students to vote yes.
Wright went on to say most of ASM’s efforts to promote the election would occur around the day of the election. ASM will be performing off-campus, door-to-door campaigning.
Until then, ASM is working to secure student organization endorsements, he added.
“We think it will be very beneficial if students see many groups unaffiliated with ASM supporting our new constitution,” Karns said. “We want students to be able to hear an un-biased, positive and informed opinion about the constitutional changes before it’s time for them to make their final decision.”
Karns said though unaffiliated groups are campaigning both for and against the changes in the constitution, she has faith “well-informed” people will vote yes.
The constitutional committee will be meeting Sunday for a final review of the bylaws. The bylaws will then be sent to Student Council for a final vote.
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Wright is an idiot. I’m pretty sure that UW-Madison students could handle reading one more sentence on the ballot, and we would MUCH rather do two votes at once than have to remember another one later. I predict that they will not get enough votes.
I don’t think they need a minimum number of votes for the outcome to be standing.
Does anyone else see a huge conflict of interest in the ASM Vice Chair and ASM Chair (per her participation in the facebook group) encouraging students to vote YES when ASM is running the election???? And when Gosselin, the Chair of ASM’s SSFC and Student Council, is one of the drafters of the new document?
”We think it will be very beneficial if students see many groups unaffiliated with ASM supporting our new constitution, Karns said.
When did it become ”our new constitution?” instead of the PROPOSED constitution. Clearly, ASM elected officials are intent upon pushing this change through to benefit a few students in their ranks without listening to or respecting their constituents’ viewpoints.