By
Maya Schechter
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Five presidential candidates highest number in 10 years
For the first time, ASUA elections will be done online, but that's not all that is new this year - five candidates are running for president, the highest number in more than a decade.
Four of the five presidential candidates, and both of the candidates for the executive and administrative vice presidents were involved with ASUA this year. There are 15 students running for a position on the Senate.
At last year's Associated Students of the University of Arizona elections, only about 3,000 students voted, but President Ben Graff said he is hoping the numbers will increase with the online accessibility.
"Stanford University had 50 percent voter turnout when they used online voting," Graff said. "It just makes more sense for us to do it. The students need to have a say in their representation."
ASUA elections commissioner Joe Rodgers echoed Graff's optimism.
"With nine percent (voting turnout last year) the only way to go is up," said.
When Graff first contacted the Center for Computing and Information Technology about the possibility of online voting, he said his first concern was security.
"We needed to figure out how to create a system where students can only vote once, and that no one will ever see who they vote for," Graff said.
Students will be able to vote online by accessing the ASUA Web site - www.asua.arizona.edu - and clicking the "flashing voting button," Graff said, which will then connect them to UA's Student Link. Students will then enter their identification and pin numbers and cast their votes.
After the system verifies they are indeed UA students, and they have not yet voted, the system will split into two parts - the first will remember the name and make sure it is only used once. The second part will be the actual vote.
"It's exactly what we wanted and we know it's secure because grades and other personal information are listed," Graff said. "We're very excited about it."
Rodgers said he will hold a mock election - which will consist of a few "fake" candidates - from Feb. 7-17 to test the system.
"We just to make sure everything works and that all the bugs are out," he said.
During the two days of the primary elections - Feb. 27 and 28 - and the general elections - March 7 and 8 - students will have from 8 a.m. on the first day until 8 p.m. the following night to cast their votes.
"The beauty of it is that voting will be done over a period of 36 hours," Graff said. "It eliminates the problem of students who are too busy to vote during the day or forget."
"Because the system is internal, through Student Link, online elections will not cost ASUA a dime," he added.
Each candidate turned in a packet by 5 p.m. yesterday, and was not considered eligible without the required documents, Rodgers said.
They each needed to have their petitions signed, he added. For the position of senator, 300 signatures were needed, 400 for both offices of vice president - executive and administrative - and 500 for president.
The candidates also had to have a form signed by the Registrar's Office, verifying they had at least a 2.0 GPA and were taking a minimum of seven units.
"It pretty much makes you a candidate unless you cheat in some way," Rodgers said.
Cheating means forging signatures or making up names and ID numbers, Rodgers said, but he does random verifications to make sure they are real.
At tonight's information meeting, Rodgers said he we will tell the candidates what they can and cannot do, in terms of advertising and campaigning.
Graff said ASUA is working with KAMP Radio and TV3 to try to get short candidate monologues on the air for students to learn more about who to vote for.
Although the voting can be done from any computer, Graff said, there will be five computer labs on campus that will be designated as voting stations. The rules and instructions will be posted, and a monitor will be present to make sure the computers are not used for e-mail or anything else except voting.
"What Joe has done is just a drop in the bucket," he added. "We will now also be able to post more surveys for student feedback. (Online accessibility) is opening the door for ASUA to be closer to the students."
