Duke Student Government executive elections are less than a month away, but legislators may still vote to make major changes to the voting procedures.
This Wednesday, the Legislature will vote on an amendment - proposed by Justin Ford, DSG executive vice president - to the election by-laws that would require a candidate to receive a majority vote in the presidential election or face a run-off with the opponent who received the next highest number of votes.
That amendment, however, has drawn criticism from students and DSG members alike. Approval would almost guarantee that all presidential elections would end in a run-off, as no presidential candidate in DSG's history has received the majority of the vote.
Ford, a senior, said he proposed the amendment on behalf of the six-member executive committee, which approved the amendment by a majority vote.
"Our thoughts were that a president who is elected by the majority would have an unquestionable mandate by the student body," Ford said.
He added that the executive committee's decision to present the amendment was not specific to current leadership within the organization.
"Our decision was based on trying to ensure the strengths of leadership in our organization," he said. "We felt that any candidate who could pass that electoral test would be of great benefit to DSG."
Two legislators have already proposed changes to the amendment to be presented at Wednesday's meeting.
Rather than holding another election, sophomore Ryan Kennedy proposed a system of instant runoff voting. Although the winning candidate would still require a majority, students would rank their preference of presidential candidates on the ballot. A computer program would then determine the winner based on those rankings.
"While I think the legitimacy of [requiring a majority vote] is good, I think the method of having a runoff after the elections would be disastrous because student voter turnout is already so low," Kennedy said, adding that a second election might attract even fewer voters.
Another suggested change would increase the current required 6 percent plurality to 10 percent for a candidate to win.
DSG President Joshua Jean-Baptiste proposed his own amendments to the election by-laws, although the executive committee voted not to present them to the Legislature.
Those changes - part of Jean-Baptiste's larger suggestions for a restructuring of DSG - would have candidates for various positions run on the same ticket under a common agenda, with the goal of making the organization more efficient.
"[Under the current system], you have six executive officers running on six different platforms, then they're all elected and you're supposed to reach some sort of compromise," Jean-Baptiste said.
With a set agenda chosen by the student body, he said, the future administration would reach that compromise before the election and be held more accountable to completing its goals.
"I don't think [the proposed amendment] will solve the issue," Jean-Baptiste said. "I'm more concerned about solving the issue of inefficiency than anything else."
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