Students will be using paper ballots in the upcoming Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) elections, and will only be able to vote for one major, according to chief electoral officer Andrea Dark.
In 2013-14, students with two majors in two different faculties could not vote for council candidates in both faculties in the CUSA elections. Dark said students were unable to choose which faculty they voted in due to the computer system used for ballots.
This year, these students will be able to vote for the faculty that comes up on their Carleton Central audit, Dark said.
After electoral code changes at council Dec. 4, 2013, CUSA elections could be held online.
That will not be the case, however.
It would take at least six to eight months to design, develop and test an electronic voting system, Dark said.
She advised that since the elections team was only hired December, that a full-time CUSA employee or executive take on the task of moving elections online for next year.
Stemming from this, absentee voters—away on internship or exchange, for example—will not be able to vote as “the elections office does not have a process in place to ensure the privacy of your vote,” Dark said via email.
That would not be an issue if there was an electronic voting system, Dark said.
