By Sonia McBride
Published May 12th 2008 in The Daily of the University of Washington
Students will have the opportunity to get into the civic spirit because ASUW elections start today. The election will run through Wednesday night at 11:59 p.m., and results will be announced Thursday at approximately 7 p.m. in the HUB second floor lounge. the results will also be posted and posted online.
Candidates have been officially campaigning since 6 a.m. on April 21.
“It’s a rough experience,” said ASUW vice president Sam E. Al-Khoury. “It’s a very difficult job interview — it’s all a test.”
This year’s candidate turnout is much higher than last year’s elections, when many of the candidates had no opponents.
There are five candidates for ASUW president alone, all of whom have spent $1875 dollars on campaigning.
A Catalyst survey will be utilized for voting. Voters will rank the candidates in order of preference and be able to write in candidates as well. Instant runoff voting (IRV) will be used to calculate the winner.
All of the first place rankings will be counted, and a winner will be announced if a candidate has 50 percent of the vote or more. If not, counting will move to all of the voters’ second place preferences and so on, Al-Khoury said.
Many of the candidates are running with a ticket, or a group of students who hope to gain office together.
These include Dawg Life, VisionUW, Your Voice UW and DEFinitiveUW.
The results from the first day of voting will be a good barometer for how the rest of the election will play out, presidential candidate Rob Barnum-Reece said.
Candidates have been officially campaigning since 6 a.m. on April 21.
“It’s a rough experience,” said ASUW vice president Sam E. Al-Khoury. “It’s a very difficult job interview — it’s all a test.”
This year’s candidate turnout is much higher than last year’s elections, when many of the candidates had no opponents.
There are five candidates for ASUW president alone, all of whom have spent $1875 dollars on campaigning.
A Catalyst survey will be utilized for voting. Voters will rank the candidates in order of preference and be able to write in candidates as well. Instant runoff voting (IRV) will be used to calculate the winner.
All of the first place rankings will be counted, and a winner will be announced if a candidate has 50 percent of the vote or more. If not, counting will move to all of the voters’ second place preferences and so on, Al-Khoury said.
Many of the candidates are running with a ticket, or a group of students who hope to gain office together.
These include Dawg Life, VisionUW, Your Voice UW and DEFinitiveUW.
The results from the first day of voting will be a good barometer for how the rest of the election will play out, presidential candidate Rob Barnum-Reece said.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.