A bill that seeks to improve ASUI elections by expanding the position of elections coordinator into multiple positions was introduced to the floor at the senate meeting Wednesday.
The bill was sent to the Rules and Regulations Committee for review and will ve coted on in the coming weeks.
The bill is authored by ASUI President Max Cowan and sponsored by Senator Alejandra Gonzalez and is intended to improve the staff support on the Communications Board for ASUI elections if passed in next week’s meeting.
Senator Hunter Howell, chair of the Rules and Regulations committee, said the proposed bill is resourceful in that it takes a substantial workload previously delegated to one individual and opens it up to two or three.
“Bill F13-07 is a bill that amends the rules and regulations to include three elections coordinators,” Howell said. “So, in the past there was only one elections coordinator and now there can be up to three which would offer more efficient work on the elections.”
Cowan said the work done by the elections coordinator can be divided into three categories that are demanding jobs in themselves — candidate relations, promotion, and coordinating the mechanics of elections.
Howell said that the most evident benefit of the bill is the potential of increasing voter turnout in future elections by having a designated person focus on promotion.
“Last term we got really excited when we saw the numbers go higher and higher,” Howell said. “So we would like to see that trend continue.”
Gonzalez said an obvious benefit of the bill would be an increase in the candidate pool for ASUI offices by having more people promoting upcoming elections to students on campus.
Adding two more board positions has brought up the issue of funding. Cowan said that if two more elections coordinator positions were added and paid the same rate for the same duration of the original job, it would leave the senate on the hunt for an additional $2,000.
Gonzalez said the issue of funding the expanded positions was the first thing that came to mind when Cowan approached her with the drafted bill.
“I definitely had questions about the financial parts of it, if we really did want to hire two other people and spend $2,000 more of the budget,” Gonzalez said. “It’s still tentative, as we put on the bill, pay will be set once we hire those people.”
Cowan said that options such as divvying up the original pay, using the saving funds from a previous bill that was passed and converting the jobs into volunteer positions are being considered by members of the legislative and executive branches of ASUI.
Cowan also said a surge of competent candidates for the original position fueled the idea of expanding the position to more people.
“We were going through the interviews for these positions and we found that we had many qualified candidates who were interested in working on ASUI elections,” Cowan said. “So it seemed foolish to turn away people who want to work on elections when we are struggling to run elections.”
If the bill is passed in committee in the next week it will return to the floor for discussion at the next senate meeting where it will be voted on by members of the senate.
Amber Emery can be reached at [email protected]