Voting for Change with a Change in the Voting

The voting process for SGA officers saw a very interesting change this year. Normally the voting was done with traditional checkbox ballots that were filled out in the campus center by students who walk by. This change was described by one student as “convenient.” In the sense that it allows all students to go online and vote anytime they want within the two day voting period.

However, not all students are aware of the voting days and times. Many students simply did not vote due to a lack of knowing, and confrontation. In past years, the campus center was filled with a table, and all potential candidates swarming around for votes. This year, we saw a double-edged change.

Another advantage of Blackboard is the security of knowing that each student votes once, and only once. The election is not skewed one way or another as if a student were to choose to present his or herself as someone else. Unless people are giving passwords away, Blackboard is a great change in that sense.

Although, some students thinks this was a negative change. “More people are gonna vote when they are asked in the campus center,” one student said said.

Another student disagreed in a sense. “I think it’s very convenient,” the student said. “You can be home, it can be like 11:00 at night, and you realize you haven’t voted yet. So you go ahead and sign online, and make your vote. You don’t need to be anywhere special to do it.”

However, the same student also replied back with this: “Although it is a convenient change, the reality is I think only a quarter of the students, at most, casted a vote.”

So that is the lying question: Does convenience outweigh numbers? All students have the same chance to vote, putting them in the campus center makes them more inclined, putting it on blackboard makes it easier.

I e-mailed Director of Student Activities Sally Stetler. When asked about the voting numbers, her reply was “she did not have [this] information.” The reason for changing to Blackboard was “students can now vote 48 hours non-stop, as opposed to 8 hours.”

Sally Stetler, along with References worker Rosemary Deegan, tallies the votes. They are conducted as a test, and the highest percentage is the winning candidate. When I asked Sally what she would like to see changed in the system, she stated “a higher voting rate.”

So Albright has seen changes in how voting works. Senior officers are leaving, underclassmen are preparing to fill those voids, and this election saw what many students believe to be a lower voting rate. There are no numbers (as of yet), but if the common suspicion is true, we now have to ask ourselves, is the change being made the change that all students want?

I would like to thank Sally Stetler, Lauren Kittle, Sarah Bruno, and Adam Stamm for their time and contributions. Any concerns about this report can be e-mailed to Kevin.brogan11@albright.edu. Thank you