Gone are the days of having to leave the comforts of your residence and taking those extra five minutes to put your vote forward. The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) has announced voting will be conducted completely online for this year’s CUSA elections, and it’s about time.
The recommendation for them to finally make voting accessible from home was put forward before, but the ability to fully implement it hasn’t been able to take hold until this year.
While this decision is a bit overdue in the world of online voting and polling, it’s a great step forward in making it more accessible and convenient for students.
According to CUSA president Folarin Odunayo, the recommendation was based on online voting and polls conducted in the last two years. The fall reading week poll, for example, had 11,800 votes in total. This means that just over half of the 23,000 students at Carleton put forth a vote, possibly showing the effectiveness of online voting in the numbers.
Odunayo also said having strictly online voting methods will be cheaper for the organization, and will provide results much sooner. As voting will take place on Jan. 28 and 29, he said he expects they will have results by the end of the month.
For students who don’t readily have access to a computer or the Internet, there will still be computers set up at polling stations around campus.
The benefits of online voting make it clear CUSA has made a positive decision in moving forward voting on Carleton’s campus. It’s cost effective, convenient, and fast.
Now it’s just up to students to take advantage and vote.
