University of Virginia Library

No Confidence

The recent Student Council
elections are thankfully over and
what appears to be at least
adequate candidates have been
elected. But few members of the
student body are completely happy
with either the results or the
campaigns or both. I would like to
suggest a reform which might
reverse the trend of student
alienation from its own system of
self government.

In all future elections, provisions
should be made on each ballot for a
vote of "No Confidence" in each
category. Then, if the number of
"No Confidence" votes equaled the
number of votes received by the
leading candidate, that particular
office would be unfilled until an
acceptable candidate is found.
Alternately, the question of "No
Confidence" could be treated as a
referendum with the same result of
a void election if passed. To
prevent anarchy, however, the
number of attempted elections
should be limited to perhaps three,
with the leading candidate in the
third election being declared the
winner.

This reform would do two
things. On one hand, it would tend
to reduce the field in each election
to two candidates because those
people who run merely to discredit
the system would be working
toward their ends by encouraging
"No Confidence" votes which
would have some effect, rather than
encouraging votes for "Speedy"
which are only a futile gestures.

Secondly, with the threat that
an entire election could be voided,
the political parties would have
more of an incentive to choose only
completely qualified candidates.
This would simultaneously increase
the stature of Student Council and
the system as a whole, while also
promoting meaningful votes instead
of empty gestures or votes of "No
Confidence".

The overall result of including a
"No Confidence" box on each
ballot would be an increase in the
effectiveness of Student Council,
because each officer elected under
the proposed system would be able
to claim a mandate from the
student body in lobbying efforts
with the Administration and the
State. At present, Council members
cannot claim that mandate after
being elected in multi- candidate,
discredited campaigns.