Widely considered to be a success, this monthโs Wilfrid Laurier University Studentsโ Union (WLUSU) elections garnered a considerably wider turnout than usual, with almost 35 per cent o! students casting a bal- lot online.
Voters signed in to find their ballot using their university-issued Novell network login and proceeded through a program designed by the universityโs Information Technology Services (ITS) department.
Unlike years past, where candidate names were randomized or there were numerous sets of ballots upon which candidatesโ names showed up arranged in a different order, the online ballots for the 2011-12 election were alphabetized.
โThere was, I guess, a communication breakdown somewhere and thatโs how it ended up happening,โ explained current WLUSU president Kyle Walker, who had a large hand in administering the online elections.
When asked whether the alphabetization was simply a glitch with the technology, Walker assured TheCord that this was not the case. โIt was just how the names were given to ITS,โ he said. โIt was just how they were inputted, but I mean the ITS staff wouldnโt know any better.โ
Of the 18 candidates on the ballot for the 2011-12 WLUSU board of directors, three of the bottom six candidates in terms of alphabetical order were not elected.
During the 2010-11 WLUSU election, candidate names were randomized and those not elected to the board were distributed evenly throughout the candidates when ordered alphabetically. Both Walker and chair of the board Kyle Hocking remained confident that despite the lack of randomization of ballots, the results would not be skewed.
โThe average student, I guess itโs possible that they could be influenced one way or another,โ said Hocking, โBut I really donโt see it as a huge issue.โ
Walker mentioned the fact that this year students could click on candidatesโ names to receive information about them, therefore nullifying any effects of the order of candidatesโ names โ a sentiment echoed by Hocking when he spoke to The Cord.
โIf it was a manual ballot, maybe,โ Walker said. โBut because you were online and you could click the candidateโs name โฆ we put enough information out there whether it was randomized or alphabetical it shouldnโt have made a difference.โ
The lack of randomization of the ballots is not written into policy despite being utilized in previous years, and the issue was not brought up by the WLUSU board of directors.
โIt never really came to my attention until [voting] closed,โ said Walker. โThatโs the way we did it and then afterwards someone had mentioned it to me.โ
โNow that the elections are done itโs not something we can go back and change,โ said Walker.
In terms of future elections, despite an aversion to re-ordering ballots, Hocking said the issue could possibly be addressed in this yearโs post-election review, if decided by the post elections review committee.
โIf any of the other board members see an issue than perhaps itโs something that we should look into,โ said Hocking. โBut personally Iโve never found it to be an issue.โ