SGA's method of collecting votes online has proven to be faulty in the past few years
Brittany Mouzourakis and Dave Breed won the Student Government Association Election and — along with it — inherited public scrutiny.
The voting Web site for SGA president and vice president shut down 12 hours early Sunday, evoking outcry for a recount from presidential challenger Evan Agnello.
SGA committee co-chairman Sean Howard shot down the request, saying the election results stand final.
Given SGA’s past history of elections, it’s no surprise this election was met with controversy.
The online voting process has proven faulty several times before. Coupled with low voter turnout, SGA has kept little credibility during voting season.
While we don’t think the issue skewed the election in Mouzourakis’ favor — voters couldn’t select her during those 12 hours, either — it is time to reorganize the voting process.
SGA should give students the opportunity to vote at manned booths in prominent public areas such as the Bovee University Center and the Charles V. Park Library.
Not only would this relieve the frustrations technology presents, but it also would help to put a face on the voting process.
Students may be more likely to vote if the opportunity to do so is right there as they walk by before or after class.
The voting booths could be staffed by SGA members who could actively work to answer questions about the voting process or SGA in general.
The debacle of this year’s online election has deja vu written all over it.
In 2006, the voting Web site vote.cmich.edu experienced a technical glitch at 12:30 a.m., which wasn’t discovered until 3 a.m.
The site closed the election 2 hours early.
The same problem happened in 2008, where — you guessed it — the Web site glitched and prevented people from voting.
If the voting mechanism has failed in the past, why does SGA continue to use this system?
Granted, the Web site malfunctioned this year during the last night of voting, while most students were sleeping.
But it doesn’t look good for SGA in the eyes of the students it serves.
Another problem with using the Internet to collect votes is that it doesn’t give the elections optimal promotion.
In 2008, a measly 1,722 students voted out of a student body of around 17,356.
In 2009, 2,081 students participated out of about 17,672 eligible voters.
This year echoed the same results, with 2,121 votes out of about 18,065 students.
For those keeping count, that is less than 10 percent of students on campus voting for their representatives in each of the past three years.
Clearly, the current way of collecting votes isn’t cutting it.
It’s painfully obvious SGA needs to change its tactics when it comes to elections — especially when a controversy such as this one is looming.
