The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) general elections are in full swing, although campaigning was suspended, with voting still scheduled to take place on March 9 and 10.
Things look a lot different this year with new campaigning rules and fewer positions on the ballot. Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming election.
What am I voting for?
This year, students will vote to elect the CUSA president and up to 32 council constituency representatives. The councillors will be elected from the following six constituencies:
- Arts and social sciences (seven councillors)
- Business (three councillors)
- Engineering and design (seven councillors)
- Public affairs (eight councillors)
- Science (six councillors)
- Special students (one councillor)
Students can find which constituency they are eligible to vote for by consulting the “Find my Constituency” document on the CUSA elections website.
The ballot will also include a referendum about eliminating an annual levy fee of $6 paid to Millennium Promise Alliance. The fee is listed on students’ Carleton Central under the name Millenium Village Fee, after a project of the same name which started in 2005 and continued for 10 years.
Millenium promise currently collects $6.00 per student per year as an Ancillary Levy Fee Group. Do you support removing the Millennium Promise as an Ancillary Levy Fee Group?
YES and NO Vote:
A YES vote is to remove Millennium Promise as an ancillary fee
A NO vote is to keep Millennium Promise as an ancillary fee
The ancillary fee reform committee (AFRC), chaired by vice-president (finance) Venassa Baptiste is running the “Yes” campaign, in favour of eliminating the fee.
Baptiste, who has also been corresponding with Millenium Promise on behalf of CUSA, communicated with the organization that a referendum would be taking place during the general election but the organization has not taken any actions to campaign for keeping the fee in place.
How does voting work?
On March 9, Carleton undergraduate students are scheduled to receive an electronic ballot in their student email inboxes. They will have until March 10 at 10 p.m. to cast their ballots. Students will vote using two systems: they will use a ranked ballot to elect the president and they will elect their constituency representatives under a first-past-the-post system.
Students can rank as many or as few presidential candidates as they wish.
Although votes for councillors are not ranked, students can select multiple councillors on their ballots.
On the referendum question, students can cast a yes or no vote. Students can also abstain.
What’s different from last year?
This year, CUSA overhauled its democratic structure, incorporating recommendations from the democratic reform committee. One of the changes is that students will no longer elect vice-presidents directly. Vice-presidents will be elected internally by the incoming and outgoing CUSA councils during an annual general meeting scheduled for March 25.
Students will continue to elect councillors and the CUSA president, but unlike last year, the CUSA presidents are running independently, not associated with a slate.
During last year’s elections, CUSA social media guidelines attracted criticism for banning campaigning on Reddit and restricting campaigning to certain platforms. This year, candidates are allowed to campaign on any social media platform while following the established campaign rules.
In past years, campaigning was banned during the voting period. This year, campaigning will be allowed until the last day of voting, so long as candidates refrain from introducing new points during the final two days.
How do I follow the election?
The Charlatan will be covering the election on its website and on social media. Students can also visit CUSA’s elections website.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
