The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) released the 2015 election details and passed a motion to extend the deadline for referenda questions in an emergency council meeting Jan. 8.
Samantha Somerville, the Chief Electoral Officer for the upcoming election, was elected during the meeting and presented her 2015 Writ of Elections.
Voting in this year’s election will occur on Wednesday, Jan. 28 and Thursday, Jan. 29.
The campaign period will start on Jan. 21, with the last day of campaigning being Tuesday Jan. 27, according to the writ.
The positions available are CUSA executives, and also councillors for each academic department in the university.
Undergraduate students who wish to run must be nominated between Jan. 14-16, according to the writ.
There will only be electronic ballots for this year, but computer polling stations will still be available on campus for students who do not have an access to a computer.
“[The computer polling stations] also enables people to see that elections are going on,” Somerville said.
CUSA president Folarin Odunayo said online polling is a cost-effective method of running the election, and it has been successful in the past.
“Every time we’ve done an online poll, the voter turnout has been significantly higher,” Odunayo said.
Students will receive three emails that will serve as reminders to vote throughout the elections, according to Somerville.
Council also passed a motion at the emergency CUSA meeting that extended the deadline for referenda questions students can submit from Dec. 31 to the February winter break.
Council voted on extending the deadline to give students “the opportunity to put forward questions,” Odunayo said.
“The deadline comes too soon, and the referendum process does not happen much later until the winter semester anyways,” he said.
Odunayo added the deadline will not be extended further.
