University of Virginia Library

Coordinating Elections

The Student Council has the power and
responsibility of regulating all Student
Council elections, all school officer elections,
and all Judiciary Committee elections. In
theory this is an excellent idea, allowing the
Council to coordinate elections in a manner
which will insure the greatest turnout of
voters. But in practice the Council always
manages to fragment elections in such a way
that during certain months of the academic
year, particularly during the spring months,
there is practically an election every day in
one or another of the schools of the
University.

The Political Societies and Elections
Committee of the Council, which sets the
dates for and actually operates the elections
has tried in past years to have as many
referenda, opinion surveys, and balloting for
officers of various organizations scheduled for
a two-day period but because candidates were
not always present or for some other reason
the actual voting always took place on as
many as 14 different days. Is it any wonder
that students never quite knew when the
balloting would occur or what exactly they
were voting on any given day?

Tuesday night the Council approved a
motion to separate the election for President
and Vice President of the Council from the
election for Council Representatives. The
Council's Constitution requires that its spring
elections be held in April, so this would mean
that after April 13, when Spring Break is over,
there would be two major elections which,
when coupled with class officer elections
would mean a period of several weeks where
elections were taking place.

We would like to see the Council hold the
elections for its officers, representatives,
Judiciary Committee members, and class
officers and representatives held on the same
two or even three-day period. Publicity could
be well-coordinated, voter turnout would be
higher and elections would be much more fair
as a result. At the Council meeting the main
argument for splitting the Council election
was that by having the election for President
and Vice President first, the losers in that
contest could then still run for Council
representative. It seemed to us that several
representatives speaking for the division were
individuals considering running for one of the
two top Council positions.

Rather than cater to the desires of a few
ambitious councilmen, we think that the
Council would do better to consider making
elections more convenient for the students
whose interests, after all, they are supposed to
safeguard.