Disenfranchised

By Editorial

Not since the Florida ballot machine mix-up can students recall a voting blunder: the recent Associated Students election April 11. It's time to let students cast their ballots again after a confusing ordeal of glitches.

The election, in which voters were to decide on a modified constitution, was supposed to take place online through SurveyMonkey.com.

Unfortunately, come Monday morning, the e-voting system was not working, nor were students able to cast their ballots. It wasn't until the next day when students were notified that voting would take place right outside of Benson, using paper.

But then again, this is what happens when you try to save money by hosting an election on a survey site which doesn't specialize in voting operations.

This unregulated e-voting is very problematic and, as the survey host site said in last Thursday's issue, they "can't guarantee the integrity" of such election results.

Any voting system that does not call for a student to verify his or her identity spells trouble. Students would have the ability to vote multiple times or by using another student's ID. Without the regulation of AS itself, there is more of a chance of voter fraud and less accountability on the part of our student government.

While we understand that AS implemented the e-voting as a means to get more students to actually vote, they used the wrong tactic to do so. Going through an online survey site called "SurveyMonkey" might make students even more weary of the process.

But because of the voting mix-ups this last week, these good-natured but ill-executed efforts to make more students vote has gone down the drain.

We think that any voting on campus should be regulated, and should be done so using traditional paper ballot methods. As a result of student confusion last week, we think that AS should throw out the current ballots and re-administer a fair and legitimate election -- one that all students know well in advance of, and one where they can get their vote cast successfully.