The Associated Students of Madison's recent election conundrum left it with few options for self-extrication from a rather deep hole. Possible means of redressing the electoral situation ranged, quite frankly, from bad to terrible.
Surprisingly, ASM managed to navigate this Scylla and Charybdis in the best manner possible.
Undoubtedly, the Student Judiciary's decision to move the referendum portion of the ASM spring election to next fall's ballot is imperfect. Campus issues of great importance to the university's future will be decided more than six months after their initial appearance on the ballot. While they probably won't care all that much, graduating seniors seem to have been prevented from voting on referendums they otherwise would have legally influenced. ASM, as we have previously pointed out, cannot possibly emerge from the spring-election turmoil completely unscathed.
However, given ASM's less-than-stellar alternatives of either: a) condoning election results fraught with errors, confusion and questions of impropriety; or b) violating its own constitution to hold yet another makeup election, the Student Judiciary's Sunday night decision appears to represent the least harmful of all possible options. Considering ASM's track record, our commendation comes as a surprise even to us.
With all the manure currently on the highway, though, we must stop a moment to applaud ASM for finally picking up the shovel and doing the right thing. After multiple noxious spills, there's still a long way to go before the highway is cleaned up. But the postponement of the election to next fall semester should buy some time. Allowing an election with at least 436 erroneous online ballots to stand as official would have constituted a travesty for students whose right to the franchise should be safeguarded with utmost care.
The reaction of other key campus parties to this development remains to be seen. Whether they seize the election delay as an opportunity to advance their own causes or waver in the face of a positive step by the target of their criticism will do much to determine the future course of student-body government on campus.
We thank the ASM Student Judiciary for inserting a modicum of reason into the chaos plaguing this year's spring-election marathon. Unfortunately, the court's decision looks like an anomaly in the context of the past 10 years.
We wish all students the best of luck today as they face another round of voting on ASM candidates at the polling places around campus. We hope this latest electoral episode — jury-rigged and questionable as it is — will be marked by fewer irregularities and errors than earlier incarnations.
We aren't, however, holding our breath.
