by Bryan Gibel
Daily Lobo
ASUNM met for an emergency session Wednesday and passed two election reform bills aimed at increasing voter turnout for the student government's elections.
Bill 6S passed 18-2 and will allow students to vote in ASUNM elections over the Internet if they can't make it to a polling center.
Faculty Senate, Staff Council and GPSA use online voting for their elections.
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Bill 4S will put a polling location in Mesa Vista Hall near the ethnic centers, reversing a March 7 vote. Seventeen senators voted in favor of the bill, two voted against it and one abstained.
Both bills will be effective in time for the ASUNM elections April 11.
Sen. Jimmylee Gutierrez, who introduced the bills, said ASUNM's top priority must be voter turnout.
"The whole point is to increase student voter turnout - no matter what it takes. Whether that means increasing hours, increasing voting days, increasing access (or) increasing polling locations," he said. "Whatever it takes - that's what we need to look into."
More than 700 students voted in the fall elections. About 600 students voted in the fall 2005 elections. There are 18,199 undergraduate students at UNM, according to the Office of the Registrar.
Sen. John Weaver, who voted against putting a polling station at Mesa Vista Hall, said online
voting could lead to unethical campaigning.
Candidates could have parties to get votes and walk around soliciting votes with a laptop, he said.
"In the issue of election voting, there are many ways to get votes," he said. "Online voting will increase turnout, but is it worth knowing that some votes will be skewed and misled?"
Brittany Jaeger, ASUNM president, said there will be meetings next week to discuss how to make sure the elections are secure.
"There are nine elections commissioners," she said. "Nobody's really sure how they're going to monitor 19,000 people on and off campus."
Gutierrez said there haven't been problems with the online voting for GPSA, Staff Council or Faculty Senate, so the risk of election fraud is not significant.
"All three other governments at this University have online voting and have had no problems," he said. "If we really want to have a legitimate student voice, we need to get a larger voter turnout than the 700 people who voted in the previous elections."
Sen. Matt Barnes said he didn't support the bill to put a polling location in Mesa Vista Hall.
"We need to bring the polling locations out of Mesa Vista and the SUB to put one outside in the middle," he said. "That will create an atmosphere on voting day that will bring people together. Let's be innovative. Let's cut the red tape, and let's do this together."
Sen. Evan Harris said putting a polling center between the SUB and Mesa Vista would not significantly increase minority voter turnout.
"Latino students, and especially African-American students and Native-American students, would be much more comfortable voting near the ethnic centers," he said. "We need to reach out to minorities, and we need to respond to institutional racism and institutions that are set up to hold people down."
Weaver said the Senate agreed it needs to find ways to increase the student vote.
"Tonight, we passed some bills. Let's support them and push them to their fullest extent," he said. "As a senate, it's important that we stick together. Some people might not agree to certain things, but let's push forward everything we passed and look to the overall goal of getting students involved and knowing ASUNM."
ASUNM voting results
Bill 4S for a new polling center in Mesa Vista Hall:
Against:
Matt Barnes and
John Weaver
Abstaining:
Ashley Fate
Bill 6S for online voting:
Against:
Ashley Fate and
Louis Jeantete
