In a meeting Wednesday, the Associated Students of Madison Student Election Commission discussed the future of ASM elections and the potential use of a coin toss to decide a tie between two candidates in the most recent round of elections.
The SEC discussed new developments in how future elections will be held, including a new policy that holds co-sponsors of referenda to the same standards of conduct as candidates running for specific seats.
SEC pursued these new rules after it was unable to address complaints against members of the Student Labor Action Coalition, the group that co-sponsored a living-wage referendum in the spring 2006 elections.
There was nothing we could do about it, because there was no rules against an organization that sponsors a referenda,\ Student Elections Commission Chair and UW-Madison sophomore Tim Leonard said.
Under the new rules, SEC will be able to place penalties upon organizations or individuals who co-sponsor referenda or initiatives.
The commission also began the process of finding a new system for ASM elections before the next round in October.
Vice Chair of the Commission Joshua Tyack said the search is going to be difficult because the Associated Students of Madison Constitution mandates cumulative voting, requiring students to cast their allotted number of votes however they wish.
Alison Rice, faculty director of ASM, said another issue with the search is the fact that SEC has no money budgeted for implementing a new system.
Leonard said SEC needs to find tens of thousands of dollars to fund the new system, and most likely will tap ASM reserves for the money.
Ultimately, Leonard said, SEC needs to oversee more stringent standards in how elections are handled in the future.
""It is our responsibility to have that oversight over DoIT, or whoever we contract to have the voting system,"" he said.
With regard to the tie, each candidate for the ASM Special Students seat got one vote, and, according to Leonard, both want the position.
ASM bylaws say SEC can use ""any means necessary"" to solve the issue, making a coin toss just one of a wide variety of options. Discussion of other means included rock-paper-scissors and an American Gladiator-type challenge.
\
