Students will no longer see Student Government Association candidates at voting stations.
Student Senate voted to change the wording on a part of the election rules to prohibit candidates, election staff or any SGA member from being a voting booths or soliciting votes via any electronic device. The changes were approved Feb. 24 after the Senate voted by secret ballot.
Students still will vote on Orgsync, an online community management system. Students log onto Orgsync with their university email and go to the Student Elections page to vote.
“I feel confident that the changes will be a good thing,” said Chance Johnson, chief of executive staff for Student Senate. “Students can feel better about how they are voting because the person who is on the ballot is not standing there watching them.”
The former campaign rules allowed candidates and their staff to stand at the voting places with electronic devices asking students if they had voted. Now this would disqualify the candidate.
“I don’t think that the change will impact voter turnout,” SGA President Beatrize Martinez. “If candidates run their campaigns well, then there is not a problem.”
Senators have not decided who will be present at the voting kiosks, but the decision will be made before the election period begins.
“We hope to reach a decision soon, but it is just a matter of working with this new language,” Johnson said. “I hope to have an answer between the filing period and the start on campaigning.”
The filing period began Monday March 2 and will close at 5 p.m. March 20.
During this period, any student who wants to run for a SGA office can apply for candidacy logging onto Orgsync and going to the Student Elections page.
“There are different requirements for different offices,” Johnson said. “But anyone can run for office.”
Students can run for SGA president, vice president, organization senators, or sophomore-, junior-, or senior-at-large senator.
A mandatory candidate information session will be hosted at 6 p.m. March 24 in the Great Hall in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center.
Elections are Mar. 31 and Apr. 1.
If students have question they can email Student Court at ocustucourt@my.okcu.edu.
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