Along with the candidates running for ASUI president, vice president and senate, there will be an additional ballot asking students to vote on an amendment to the ASUI constitution.
ASUI Elections Coordinator Brianna Larson said the ASUI Constitution currently requires a certain level of voter turnout to make any changes to the constitution, making amending the constitution difficult. The proposed amendment would eliminate the requirement that 25 percent of the student body must vote to amend the constitution.
“We want the majority of however many people vote to be able to change it instead of having to get, for example, 2,400 people to vote to change anything,” Larson said.
Larson said she wrote this document with former ASUI Vice President Sarah Vetsmany when she was a senator last spring. Larson said the bill passed then, but due to technical difficulties it was not introduced on the fall election candidate ballots.
ASUI Director of Policy Nick Wren said the irony of this vote is that ASUI still needs 25 percent of the student body to vote in order to remove the 25 percent requirement.
“There might be a few constitutional amendments coming up in terms of redistricting senate and this bill was passed last senate and for one reason or another this didn”t actually go on the ballot last fall,” Wren said. “I think it was held for this election with the hopes that this constitutional amendment will get a 25 percent voter turnout.”
Wren said the requirement was established in 2002 and since then there has only been four changes to the ASUI constitution. Wren said in recent history only 5 to 6 percent of the student body votes on proposed constitutional amendments, with the highest turnout being 22 percent.
“I really am in support of this amendment because this enables ASUI to bring about change when it feels it”s necessary,” Wren said. “Changing the constitution is no small matter and the fact that it has been done four times in the last 14 or 15 years is something to really think about.”
He said this modification would not change the process in which the constitution is amended. Changes would still have to be approved of by ASUI senate and UI students.
“Amendments still have to go through all the usual processes, so it”s still a rigorous process,” Wren said. “Once these documents are in resolution form, that means they”ve spent weeks being talked about in committee meetings or task forces. Especially with constitutional amendments, they are something ASUI never takes lightly.”
The reason behind including the amendment proposal on the spring elections ballot is to reach as many voters as possible, Wren said.
He said voter turnout is largely dependent on the candidates running and how competitive the race is, which is why this is an ideal ballot to include the amendment on. Wren said if students vote to pass this bill, it will likely go into effect the coming fall, depending on how the document is written.
“I”m not sure that this will necessarily make the constitution more flexible,” Wren said. “I think it is going to help future ASUI administration to have the chance to make important changes.”
Jessica Gee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jessicac_gee