The Carleton University Students’ Association’s (CUSA) elections have become old and outdated. After talks last year about moving the process online, this year saw students yet again standing in line to fill out paper ballots. CUSA can’t hold elections this way anymore.
Moving voting online would solve many of the problems plaguing the elections right now.
This year, it took 21 hours to count all the votes. With an online system much of that work can be done by a computer that can count better than any group of people ever could. This would also save money. A computer doesn’t have to be paid for 21 hours of counting.
Last year, council argued that online elections are a risky business. This year, the university has a precedent for online voting for a fall reading week, which happened without any big problems. The fall reading week vote proves that fears of hacking or system glitches can be put to rest.
That vote also saw a higher voter turnout than the elections have in the past few years. Students don’t want to wait in line for half an hour waiting to vote, when they could log on to their computers anywhere and vote in a few minutes.
Reasons can be brought up all day about how online elections would be best for students, but the fact remains that this is in the hands of CUSA council now. The executives and councillors need to push for online elections. It’s the 21st century, and we’re late on this already.
Let’s not be any later.
