Effective this year, students off campus during Winter term will be allowed to run for a Student Assembly or class office position, according to Mark Hoffman, chair of the Election Advisory Committee.
The committee's major change extends the deadline for candidacy petitions -- previously always due before the end of Winter term -- until April 3, Hoffman said.
The early deadline formerly prevented students off campus during Winter term from having the opportunity to run for an office as candidates on the ballot. In order to run for office, these students were forced to run as write-in candidates.
The elections, to be conducted on April 15 and 16, will determine the Assembly president and vice president, class presidents and vice presidents, the six elected members of the Committee on Standards, Green Key Society members and Student Assembly class representatives.
All candidates must submit a petition which requires between 50 and 100 signatures of support, depending on the position under consideration.
Other election policy changes have evolved within the class councils.
The Class of 2000 has decided to postpone its elections for the 1998-1999 year until the summer. During the elections in April, they will only be electing officers to serve during the summer term, Hoffman said.
The change was made so that elections for long-term representatives will be held during a term when all members of the sophomore class are on campus.
The Class of 2001 has decided to elect 30 at-large representatives in addition to the class president and vice president, a change they made in the class constitution, according to Class of 2001 President Amar Dhand.
The voting procedure will be similar to last year's. Students can cast ballots on-line on April 15 and 16.
Because of security arrangements, the computers from which students cast their on-line votes need to have KeyClient software installed, Hoffman said. Therefore, people off-campus during Spring term will need to pick up an absentee ballot before they leave in order to vote, he said.
Elections do not draw a large percentage of students out to vote. According to Hoffman, last year only 1200 to 1400 students voted for Assembly president and vice president.
"Only 15, maybe 20" people voted by absentee ballot last year, Hoffman said. Although students who declare their candidacy at the beginning of Spring term will appear on the regular ballot, they will not appear on the absentee ballot.
To increase voter awareness and interest, the committee is hosting a speech night to feature all the candidates -- not only Assembly presidential and vice presidential candidate -- in response to complaints that little information on the candidates was available.
