Last week, the Associated Students of Madison Student Judiciary put their seal of approval on the fall elections, including the passage of both the Living Wage and Student Union Initiative referendums. Though only 6.59 percent of the student body showed up to the polls, ASM OK'd the elections as fair and accurate — essentially raising student-segregated fees for 30 years to fund SUI and demanding monies from some unknown source to ensure student workers make $10.23 per hour.
And after two botched elections in the spring that were to decide the same two referendums, we thought ASM had finally pulled off an election the organization itself was happy with.
We spoke too soon.
Late last week, six ASM members filed a lawsuit against the Student Election Commission, alleging SUI misled student voters about both the referendum's advisory nature and what would happen if it were denied. The Student Labor Action Coalition followed suit, filing a complaint calling for the results of the election to be nullified entirely.
We applaud the efforts of students who have called the results of the election into question, especially those involved with ASM — it's about time someone within the organization recognized that students deserved better this fall.
Between being inaccessible to much of the University of Wisconsin student body and provoking a barrage of segregated fee-funded advertising advocating egregious increases in segregated fees, the elections were inadequate and unfair. ASM and DoIT should have been working full time over the past several months to ensure online elections were a viable option this fall, so any student with an Internet connection — no matter where or what time of day — could cast a vote. Meanwhile, no one thought to question an over-funded, one-sided campaign that played on students' fears that the Memorial Union might someday float away into Lake Mendota if not for a dramatic increase in segregated fees.
Next time, ASM and SEC need to take a closer look at the way they run elections before more segregated fees go to waste.
Referendums should be highly scrutinized to ensure both their legality and their plausibility in passage through the chancellor's office. Additionally, elections must be accessible to all students — not just those on campus between noon and 6 p.m. over the course of two days. Finally, both in advertising and on the ballot itself, referendums must be presented in a balanced, truthful way to guarantee students understand in full the weight of their votes.
And then, perhaps, the fifth time will be the charm.