Students running for Student Congress positions began campaigning Thursday for next week’s election.
Several new positions, including representatives for social clubs and student organizations, have been added to the ballot this year. In all, 51 students are running for different 28 positions, some of which will have multiple representatives.
Members of Students’ Association executive cabinet said they hope to still use the online voting system again but are unsure if it will be ready by the time voting opens.
Abbey Moses, SA’s interim executive vice president, said the addition of new positions has made the online voting process a little more complicated.
“With new positions, so many intricate details about students need to be known to vote,” Moses said. “If they’re in a social club, which club they are in, what year they are, whether they are in student organizations – all of that is knowledge that we have to know to vote this year. It’s is unique, very difficult and something that was probably a little bit unplanned for. So putting that online is going to be a mess but it will be worth it.”
Moses said even if they have to revert to paper ballots, it won’t be a problem.
“If we get it ready by next week, great, if not we’ll just use paper ballots,” Moses said. “It’s is just as easy for students, but a little bit more difficult on our end of processing . It won’t be a problem, it’s just kind of funky right now. But it’s fun and it keeps things lively.”
Moses is serving as interim vice president after Caleb Orr resigned during the first week of school. After elections, the new Congress members will have to approve Abbey as vice president by a two-thirds majority vote. Moses said thus far the transition to her role as vice president has gone well.
“My transition has been really fun because I really love SA,” Moses said. “Getting to be vice president means I get to work with Congress members in a vastly different way than if I would have as executive administrator. This upcoming year we are going to have a wonderful group of upcoming students that I am ready to lead.”
