UDems Elections Wednesday
By Karl-Thomas Musselman
University Democrats elections are this Wednesday starting at 8pm in Garrison 1. Currently nominated for positions are the people listed in the extended entry.
I've made up my mind on a couple of races, and considering I'm not running for anything, I'll probably mention a few of those who I'm voting for tomorrow, but I'm curious as to anyone's thoughts on the elections right now.
I'm also in the process of writing up the final language for a UD Constitutional Amendment I'm planning on putting forward and seeing how it goes over. One thing that's always been frustrating in these officer elections is that there is never an official vote count released, no accountability to the person who comes back from vote counting and says "so and so" won. So the language of my amendment would have the intention of having the Secretary, not only count the votes but officially record them. I'm trying to think if it should be written so that the results are announced or just recorded and made publicly available upon request. Thoughts on that?
President:
Brandon Chicotsky
Nick Chu
Ali Puente
VP:
Katie Naranjo
David Black
Sheel Bedi
PR Director:
Sukanya Misra
Ramon Telles
Secretary:
Katie Cowhig
Emily Bivona
Ronald M
Treasurer:
Kurt Neumann
John Chen
Events:
Michael Fritz
Cindy Castillo
Ray Skidmore
Volunteer:
Sam Srour
Kelly Fine
Historian:
Jess Faerman
Ashley Boggs
Liz Romig
Webmaster:
Tim Allen
Elizabeth Anderson
Posted by Karl-Thomas Musselman at November 29, 2005 12:11 AM
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I agree as well Chris and Ramon. I don't want to extend it to our political endorsement elections just yet, as I'm sure that would kill the amendment, it's too big of a leap to take (since we need 2/3) But I guess the question is should it be written so the results are announced when the winner or run-off is announced, or just have it publicly available to those who want to seek it out for themselves. Because even though now it is 'secret' there is always a select bunch of people who find out from the Secretary. I know Byron always grabbed the numbers, most of the officers know, and it gets leaked anyways.
I want the last remnants of the shadows of insiderness of the UDems of the past to be cleaned up.
Chris accurately portrayed my position about public disclosure of vote tallies.
I've advocated for this at GPAC at LBJ as Chris mentions. I don't want to make a recommendation to the UDems, because while I have several good friends there, I am not a member.
But my thoughts about these issues is: unless you are in highschool, there's no compelling reason to keep the tallies of votes inside an organization secret. Especially not when it is a political organization. If you are a member of a political organization and have the desire to be an official and start building your future political career, then you need to assume the risk and accept any result. Some think that such a system could discourage people from running; I find that argument pretty weak.
Also, it is just a matter of transparency. It looks pretty shady not having open tally records for elections in a political organization.
