2008 Woodie Awards
Online voting reaps higher voter turnouts
Brendan Block
Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: Forum
- Page 1 of 1
Last year this time, the voter turnout for homecoming queen was only 1/4 of the turnout this year. With this improvement of voter turnout this year the SBU Student Government Association claims the superiority of the new electronic voting system. Truly it brings more student involvement to a largely apathetic, uninvolved campus. If you do not believe my assertion, believe it when I say that this year's turnout was only 272 students. We have 1507 students on campus, and while still exploring methods of promotion on campus, we still have a lot of work to do.
"I was skeptical of online voting in the beginning," said Student Body Vice-President Senior Kristin Binzler. "But now I truly believe that the benefits far outweigh the costs."
This is true if you are talking of a relatively minor election like the Homecoming Queen, but could the electronic system really be beneficial for a major election?
This new voting style applied to a major election could completely change the methods of campaigning.
A candidate might not have as good of resources to campaign and try to convince voters for their support under the old system. Under the new system however, a candidate could go door to door in the dorm and convince people to vote for them much easier since they only have to go on their computers and vote.
Students, knowing their friends and voting for them only because they got their name out there and not because of what they stand for, will now be making an uniformed vote. The point is, that under the old system, uninformed votes were limited. Now, the potential arises for an increasing number of uninformed votes due to the nature of easy access of the voting polls.
Under the old system, campaign rules included the candidate could not be in a certain vicinity of the voting booth. As of now I do not know of any rules for a major online election. If rules do exist, they would be very difficult to enforce, because more activity between candidate and voter occurs in private, not in the public area of the student union.
The benefits of electronic voting include the simplicity, and the maximizing of student participation.
Instead of SGA officials toiling for hours evaluating ballots and counting votes, everything now is done by the computer. Students also were not as constrained by the polling time with the polls for this queen election being open from 8 a.m. till 6 p.m.
This article is not in any sense attempting to undermine the Student Government. I am an active member and support the Student Government Association.
I only hope that we can meet the online voting challenges with a level head and realize that though right now we may experience the benefits of online voting. Down the road if we do not take certain precautions, the integrity of elections could be sacrificed due to potentially unethical campaigning practices occurring in private.
"I was skeptical of online voting in the beginning," said Student Body Vice-President Senior Kristin Binzler. "But now I truly believe that the benefits far outweigh the costs."
This is true if you are talking of a relatively minor election like the Homecoming Queen, but could the electronic system really be beneficial for a major election?
This new voting style applied to a major election could completely change the methods of campaigning.
A candidate might not have as good of resources to campaign and try to convince voters for their support under the old system. Under the new system however, a candidate could go door to door in the dorm and convince people to vote for them much easier since they only have to go on their computers and vote.
Students, knowing their friends and voting for them only because they got their name out there and not because of what they stand for, will now be making an uniformed vote. The point is, that under the old system, uninformed votes were limited. Now, the potential arises for an increasing number of uninformed votes due to the nature of easy access of the voting polls.
Under the old system, campaign rules included the candidate could not be in a certain vicinity of the voting booth. As of now I do not know of any rules for a major online election. If rules do exist, they would be very difficult to enforce, because more activity between candidate and voter occurs in private, not in the public area of the student union.
The benefits of electronic voting include the simplicity, and the maximizing of student participation.
Instead of SGA officials toiling for hours evaluating ballots and counting votes, everything now is done by the computer. Students also were not as constrained by the polling time with the polls for this queen election being open from 8 a.m. till 6 p.m.
This article is not in any sense attempting to undermine the Student Government. I am an active member and support the Student Government Association.
I only hope that we can meet the online voting challenges with a level head and realize that though right now we may experience the benefits of online voting. Down the road if we do not take certain precautions, the integrity of elections could be sacrificed due to potentially unethical campaigning practices occurring in private.
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