ASUNM voted not to change its elections policy, shooting down a resolution that would have allowed candidates to spend more on their campaigning and imposed stricter punishments for those who violated the code.
Sen. Christopher George proposed a bill on the topic at a Senate meeting Feb. 25 in the SUB. Four senators voted in favor of it and 11 voted against, with three abstentions.
The bill proposed several amendments, including increasing the limit on campaigning funds by $100 for each office to a total of $250.
It also proposed instituting a point system for senators, said ASUNM Vice President Alex Riebli, who supported the bill. ASUNM would allow senators to have up to 25 points' worth of violations before they lost their position in the group. Under the bill, violations would be assigned point values based on their severity.
"I don't believe that the current process for ASUNM elections is fair for candidates, and I think that the last two elections in particular have demonstrated a weakness in the way elections are being run," George said. "The enforcement of the laws is left up to the candidates themselves, and when you have a situation where there is no police or law enforcement, then you have everybody being charged with the responsibility to take the law into their own hands.."
In April 2008, George was penalized for violating ASUNM elections codes by campaigning within 25 feet of a polling place. His voting rights were revoked for his first month as a senator.
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Sen. Joey Dworak, who was opposed to the legislation, said that while the elections code is flawed, the proposed bill too strictly defined how the Elections Commission should work.
"I think I would be more inclined to vote for it next time around if there are a lot of changes made which aren't so drastic," Dworak said.
Riebli said that he still hopes the bill will eventually pass, though it wouldn't affect many current senators.
"The funny thing is that Sen. George and I and a lot of people putting a lot of work into (the bill) won't even run under the new changes," Riebli said. "But I think he put a lot of work into the bill, and I hope that he will make some small changes to it and not give up on it, so next semester ASUNM and students who want to work with us in the future will really have something that is more effective to work with."
George said he does not plan to propose the bill again soon.
