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Electronic voting for general election
Student's favor convenient idea, Senate responds
Nicole Strittmater
Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: News
Student Senate voted Monday night to rid itself of paper trails and hold electronic voting for the April general election.
After heated discussion on whether or not to risk technological problems, the body passed the motion 23-5-1, citing past success with the system.
In February, Senate tested out the WebSurvey system by holding an online referendum, which created a 10.5 percent turnout.
Out of the 10,593 students on campus, 1,110 anonymously voted.
Vice President Meghan Charlier said she isn't worried about technological glitches, and results from Senate's recent online student survey show students are overwhelmingly in favor of online voting.
"I think students think it's easy. It's convenient. I think that if the students like it, it's something that we should look into," Charlier said.
Sen. Adam Sorelle strongly opposed the idea, recalling problems he recently experienced with the WebSurvey system.
"I'm just disappointed in the system," he said. "Paper ballots have worked for us."
President Ray French said while electronic voting isn't foolproof, administrators assured him on any given day it should work.
French said during the referendum electronic election, Senate encountered a minor glitch. Each time a student cast a vote, French received an e-mail notification. He said he received 21 more e-mails than what the WebSurvey counted, but investigation found this was due to an error in the system's coding that is now fixed. He said once some submitted their vote, they clicked the 'back' button, which sent another e-mail.
He said all that matters is the system counted the correct number of votes.
Student Life and Diversity Commission director Emily Mattheisen said she supports the idea.
"We don't really know until we try," she said. This is a really great way to get our organization out there."
After heated discussion on whether or not to risk technological problems, the body passed the motion 23-5-1, citing past success with the system.
In February, Senate tested out the WebSurvey system by holding an online referendum, which created a 10.5 percent turnout.
Out of the 10,593 students on campus, 1,110 anonymously voted.
Vice President Meghan Charlier said she isn't worried about technological glitches, and results from Senate's recent online student survey show students are overwhelmingly in favor of online voting.
"I think students think it's easy. It's convenient. I think that if the students like it, it's something that we should look into," Charlier said.
Sen. Adam Sorelle strongly opposed the idea, recalling problems he recently experienced with the WebSurvey system.
"I'm just disappointed in the system," he said. "Paper ballots have worked for us."
President Ray French said while electronic voting isn't foolproof, administrators assured him on any given day it should work.
French said during the referendum electronic election, Senate encountered a minor glitch. Each time a student cast a vote, French received an e-mail notification. He said he received 21 more e-mails than what the WebSurvey counted, but investigation found this was due to an error in the system's coding that is now fixed. He said once some submitted their vote, they clicked the 'back' button, which sent another e-mail.
He said all that matters is the system counted the correct number of votes.
Student Life and Diversity Commission director Emily Mattheisen said she supports the idea.
"We don't really know until we try," she said. This is a really great way to get our organization out there."
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Voter Action
posted 3/13/08 @ 7:19 PM CST
Make your vote count.
Check out www.voteraction.org to find out why you want an auditable paper trail for your elections.
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