Changes proposed for USG election process

The Undergraduate Student Government Senate will vote next week on a proposal to make substantial changes to election rules.

Director of Elections and Recruitment Emily Lee, who has been the primary facilitator of this proposal, emphasized two changes to the election process: the wellness and overall election experience of the candidates, and increased transparency in the election process.

Previously, the deadline for candidates to submit their essential campaign information was during finals week, which Lee said caused the candidates undue stress. The proposal would push this deadline a week into the future. The application for prospective candidates will also be open six days earlier than last year’s, starting Dec. 2. 

“I personally found it incredibly stressful to think that everything that you’re turning in, in the middle of finals week, was going to be what every other student was going to judge you on,” Lee said.

Furthermore, previous elections required signatures from fellow students in order to declare one’s candidacy. Lee saw this as an unnecessary and ineffective barrier to entry, and the proposal, she said, eradicates this requirement.

“Before, candidates were required to seek out a fixed number of signatures in order to be considered a valid candidate,” Lee said. “I know, for a fact, that these have been forged in the past. We want to make it as equal as possible for everyone, regardless of if you’re in USG or not, or have lots of friends, or [are] in a popular student organization.”

Lee said her call for increased transparency was partially due to the lack of implementation of the election guide.

“There was a previously stated elections handbook that never existed,” Lee said. “The voting guide is geared toward the general USC population and anyone interested in how to vote, who is running, their positions, and it is meant to be nonpartisan.”

She added that the changes proposed are necessary and overdue.

“I would best summarize it as making official changes that didn’t necessarily exist in the past, that should have,” Lee said.

While Lee acknowledges that she spearheaded the call for election changes, she said she reached out to former campaigners and other USG officials to advise her.

“I definitely didn’t want to make these decisions in a silo,” Lee said. “It wasn’t just a formality to reach out to the former campaigners.”

According to Lee, this is the largest election overhaul in several years. She and her team consulted over 20 universities’ election codes over the past two months and reached out to USC candidates from both the 2016 and 2017 election cycle.

“I like to think that this is a rather drastic set of changes and made for the better,” Lee said.

This proposal is actually the third draft of the new election code, the first of which dates back to April.

Overall, Lee hopes these changes will improve the relationship between candidates and those who oversee USG elections.

“Something I am personally very passionate about is just making this a more humane process, in that the elections team and the elections commission should not be in opposition to the candidates,” Lee said. “They should serve as a resource and that’s what I’m really aiming to do.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated to clarify the proposed dates for the USG election process.