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By Autumn Bouck
ASUCD's use of exclusively online polls was sparked by the Registrar's decision to stop producing registration stickers. According to Katie Mullane, the ASUCD Elections Committee Chair, in the past when students voted, a pen mark was put on the registration sticker. Without the marked sticker, there was no way to ensure that students voted only once. "[Voting online]" said Mullane," is now the only method we have for preventing students from voting more than once."
The biggest obstacle in implementing online voting was the use of the Kerberos password required to enter the secure Web site. "Some seniors, who did not have [the password], did not realize this until election day," said Mullane, "and then it was too late. We placed several ads in the Aggie and spoke at student organizations to educate people on how to get a Kerberos password. We hope that soon everyone will have (and remember) it." Despite issues with Kerberos passwords, 3,809 students voted, an about average turnout for a winter election. However, it was quite an improvement over the first online elections held last Fall in which only about 1,500 votes were cast. Students seem to appreciate the new system. "[Voting online] is a lot easier because you can do it at home," said Daniel Leung, first-year student. Interestingly, none of the five candidates for President and Vice President received over 50 percent of the vote, a requirement to win. As a result, 2,324 students voted in an online run-off between the top two candidates on February 29 and March 1.
Election Results (after run-off election)
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