DSG introduces bylaw changes to overhaul voting process

<p>DSG Senate heard the first reading of changes to Student Organization Finance bylaw at its meeting Wednesday night.</p>

DSG Senate heard the first reading of changes to Student Organization Finance bylaw at its meeting Wednesday night.

At its meeting Wednesday, Duke Student Government Senate heard the first reading to bylaw changes which would overhaul the way the student body votes for senators and vice presidents.

Senator for Academic Affairs Kushal Kadakia, a freshman, and Executive Vice President John Guarco, a junior, introduced changes to election bylaw which would get rid of the instant runoff ballot currently in place in favor of a plurality system in which voters only have to choose candidates to fill the number of positions available, instead of ranking all candidates. In the plurality system, the two candidates who receive the highest number of votes would be elected. These changes follow the Fall 2015 freshman senator elections, in which only 19 percent of freshmen voted.

“It’s better for us to have a fair system for people running for office and also make it more clear to students because I think student engagement is the most important thing,” said Kadakia. “What’s the point of being an elected official if your voters don’t know who they’re voting for or why they’re voting for them?”

The new voting system is meant to address student complaints that the instant runoff ballot format is cumbersome and time-consuming. Another complaint levied against the instant runoff is that it requires extensive knowledge of candidates in order to rank all of them, Guarco and Kadakia explained.

One of the main differences of the new plurality system is that it would only require students to choose candidates for the number of seats available. For example, if four candidates were running for two Senate seats, voters would only have to choose up to two of the candidates to fill those seats, unlike the instant runoff system in which students have to rank all candidates in order of preference.

Kadakia noted that in order to win one of a student’s votes, candidates would have to campaign harder than in the past, when all candidates were guaranteed at least a part of a vote with the ranking system.

“Hopefully this puts the onus on students to do a better job with campaigning,” Kadakia said. “I think that’s the most important thing because if we want to win our elections we should also do a better job of reaching out.”

Senate will vote on whether to approve the changes after a second reading next week.

In other business:

Guarco and Senior Operations Advisor Abhi Sanka, a senior, explained that the DSG Senate will be creating questions and topics of study for the DSG Research Unit next week. The questions will structure DSGRU’s research, which will help shape DSG policy and decision-making in the future.

The Financial Oversight and Appeals Committee presented three student group appeals: Delta Sigma Pi was reimbursed $570 for events not funded due to late programming fund request submissions and Sigma Gamma Rho received an additional $350 for event catering during their Human Trafficking Benefit. FOAC rejected the Duke Catholic Center’s appeal to fund the recording of their lecture series. The Senate upheld all FOAC decisions.

DSG Senate heard the first reading of changes to Student Organization Finance bylaw. The changes, if passed next week, will make FOAC responsible for holding hearings and resolving conflicts during student group misconduct and will also require presidential group pardons to be approved by two-thirds of the Senate. The movement was introduced by senior Nick Andrade, senator for Durham and regional affairs, Senator for Services Gerardo Parraga, a sophomore and Senator for Academic Affairs Joe Pecoraro, a freshman. The Senate will vote to approve the changes after a second reading next week.

Finally, DSG Senate moved $1000 to the presidential discretionary account from the surplus fund, which makes up for the lack of an allocation in the 2015 budget. The statute was introduced by DSG Treasurer Gwen Geng, a sophomore.

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