In its November council meeting, the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) shared its plans to temporarily allow independent candidates in this year’s executive elections. While the chair of the association’s constitutional review committee deemed this move a necessary one due to COVID-19, if RRRA wishes to ensure a future of accessible and legitimate elections, it should strive to make this change permanent.
First, the positives to enforcing a slate-only system should be acknowledged. By mandating potential executives run as teams before they are required to serve as teams, the likelihood that the three elected executives will work well together and share common values increases, thus ensuring the association will run smoothly—at least in theory.
However, enforcing a slate-only system also makes elections less accessible to many candidates. There is extra effort and organization required to gather a team of three people and run a campaign, as opposed to a one-man show.
This might sound like a positive consequence, and in some ways, it is. Raising the bar of effort required to run helps exclude candidates who aren’t serious about winning or governing, therefore avoiding the waste of voters’ time and RRRA’s resources. However, it also keeps out candidates who truly deserve the chance to run, but don’t have the teammates required to do so. RRRA as an organization is shafted in the process, as it misses out on the potential to benefit from creative ideas from independent candidates that could improve the association.
Additionally, allowing independent candidates to run in student elections is not an unprecedented idea. The Carleton University Students’ Association has successfully allowed independent candidates for years. While slates generally experience overwhelming electoral success, independent candidates have been getting closer to cinching a win—seen clearly in the close total vote counts for vice-president (finance) and vice-president (community engagement) in last year’s election.
By only allowing slates to run, RRRA has purposely shut its doors to new approaches to governing—something that could benefit an association that has, at times, been dysfunctional. For these reasons, RRRA should make its planned campaign reform permanent and allow independent candidates to run in executive elections.
Featured graphic from file.
