Talk of Duke Student Government election reforms moved from the executive table to an open forum Monday night, when 15 DSG members met to discuss potential revisions to the organization's election policy for the upcoming year.
DSG Attorney General Bryce Walker, a senior, said he hoped the discussion would address concerns raised after last year's controversial DSG presidential elections, which entailed campaign violations, bickering candidates and multiple runoffs.
"I think the reason why deliberations last year were so long for that process was because a lot of the debate was how to interpret the bylaws," Walker said. "If you can write the bylaws more effectively, you won't have that problem."
During the meeting, DSG members discussed the possibility of a president-executive vice president ticket and candidate use of the Internet in campaigns.
Walker said the discussion will be incorporated into revised legislation, which he plans to present at the DSG meeting Wednesday.
The ticket system has been discussed for several years, said Executive Vice President Brandon Goodwin, a senior.
If implemented, the president and executive vice president would enter office with a cohesive agenda and likely work better together, Goodwin said.
As a result, the DSG administration would be more productive, he added.
"Our freshman year we had a president and an EVP who blatantly fought with each other in public," Goodwin said. "It made the organization look terrible."
On the other hand, a ticket system might heighten the role of the president and "marginalize" the position of EVP, Goodwin said. The change would necessitate modifications to the voting system, increase hype around elections and place greater emphasis on publicity, he noted.
"If you go into a ticket process, you have to assume that the entire election system is altered," Walker said.
Chief of Staff Russ Ferguson, a senior who was involved in the heated election process last year, said it might be a good idea to create a new position for a person who would run meetings and work with senators-one of the duties now held by EVP.
Discussion then turned to the use of America Online Instant Messenger and facebook.com in elections-two campaign tools that have led to some controversy in past years.
"Currently the argument in our bylaws against [AOL use] is extraordinarily weak," Walker said. "I think doing this is effectively just limiting your ability to contact students."
A majority of those present at the meeting agreed that candidates should be able to use AOL but said the facebook.com should not be used.
"Speaking from experience, the facebook sucks to deal with during elections, to be quite blunt," said DSG President Jesse Longoria, a senior.
Walker hopes to implement the ideas discussed at the meeting when he formulates revised bylaws.
Although fine-tuning legislation is an ongoing process, he said concrete changes will be made by the end of the semester.
In addition, a new online voting system will be created and implemented for the upcoming elections.
"The major problem is that there is a disconnect between the students and the election bylaws," Walker said.
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