Carleton’s residence association made key changes to its electoral code at a Jan. 12 meeting aimed at making elections shorter, increasing campaign budgets, and reducing the number of rule violations.
Included in the 14 unanimously passed amendments by the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) is an increase to the maximum campaign budget, up from $200 to $500.
While candidates generally pay out of pocket, RRRA vice-president (administration) Arif Jaffer said the increase was necessary to allow candidates to advertise to the large number of students in residence.
Inspired by the tighter dates used in Carleton University Students’ Association elections, Jaffer said the length of the nomination period has been reduced from seven days to three. The campaign period itself will now last no longer than one week.
Jaffer said he hopes a shorter election will reduce the strain on candidates and students.
A policy that previously banned Twitter and social media campaigning was struck down entirely. The modified constitution also increases the size of posters.
The power of the chief electoral officer (CEO) has also been reduced. Electoral violations will no longer be at the CEO’s discretion, but rely solely on the constitution.
Jaffer said he was surprised all of the amendments passed without any debate after taking questions in committee about why the changes were necessary.
“I want to say last year was an anomaly. It doesn’t happen all the time,” he said, regarding last year’s drawn-out election process.
In 2013, campaign violations resulted in the disqualification of the winning slate, which was eventually appealed and followed by a new election. After getting the highest number of votes for the second time, A New RRRA was disqualified once again. Team United won the election.
The entire process lasted just over two months. Jaffer said he hopes the new, cleaned-up constitution will help to restore RRRA’s reputation.
“Do I think it will solve all the problems? No. But I think it will mediate them a lot better than what we had before,” he said.
Carleton Academic Student Government president Harrison Boyd, who gives reports to RRRA council and sat in on the meeting, said he hopes the changes will result in a smoother election process.
“The electoral code was a mess, the specifics put a lot of burden on candidates, there were generalities that left it open to interpretation. Hopefully we’ll see a nice clean election that will only last the two weeks as opposed to the nine weeks that occurred last year,” he said.
RRRA council also ratified fifth-year international business student Adrienne Macdonald as the new CEO. Samantha Cox, a second-year public affairs and policy management student was made deputy electoral officer.
