USG implements an updated election code

Students running for office in USG began online campaigning last night, marking the first implementation of USG’s revised elections code.

“We’ve been working on this for the past semester,” said Taylor Rottjakob, USG co-director for elections and recruitment. “All the candidates are going live on social media.”

At midnight, students began posting information about their USG campaign to Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Social media’s ever-increasing prevalence as a means of communication led to USG redesigning their election code to accommodate online campaigning.

“There is now a Campaign Part I [for social media], which never existed before,” said Olivia Diamond, director of communication.

In past years, USG campaigns began in February. The ambiguous wording of the past elections code made it easy for candidates to bend the rules and start campaigning before the determined date.

“There used to be a ‘research period’ where you could go around to clubs and other organizations on campus,” Diamond said. “You could ask questions like ‘what are you interested in on campus?’ but you couldn’t tell anyone you were running. It was kind of a gray area.”

USG believes that the new online campaigning period will reform the election process.

“It’s a different dynamic,” Diamond said of the new elections code. “There’s more transparency from the people who are running.”

An additional advantage of the revision is that candidates with limited economic means will now have equal opportunities to build a following around their campaigns.

“All of this digital publicity is free,” Diamond said. “Candidates still can put out hard media like signs or campaign posters during the last week and a half of campaigning, but these things are ultimately less important.”

Though candidates will be busy during the following weeks, USG’s Elections and Recruitment board will be just as busy monitoring their activity, making sure it conforms to the new election code.

“On our side, what we do is make sure they follow all the rules posted in the elections code,” Rottjakob said.