Editorial: SGA election policies warrant examination

Illustration by Michael Lue

Though current Student Government Association (SGA) senators are technically allowed to endorse candidates who are running for open positions, this may not be the most ethical practice.

There is nothing in SGA’s election code that prohibits current senators from campaigning for candidates, “attending” their Facebook events or voting for their friends.

Only the director of elections and the elections committee must remain impartial. However, SGA should deliberate whether this is a ruling that should be applied to all of its members.

Students browsing through Facebook can see that members of SGA are supporting certain candidates by liking their Facebook statuses, attending their events, or even inviting other students to those events. However subtly, this may be influencing how students decide to vote.

Much of SGA elections are based on name recognition. Essentially, students vote for people they know.

However, by endorsing certain candidates through the use of social media, members of SGA are basically telling students who to vote for, or that they don’t have to vote at all.

Our current election process is hardly democratic. It even verges on cronyism, as current SGA members can technically endorse their classmates, their Greek brothers and sisters and their friends.

This is not to say that the recently elected members of SGA are not qualified. We just believe that voting should be based on meritocracy, fairness and unique campaigning instead of name identification and familiarity.

The student body has a right to choose its representatives. This is a choice that should be researched, informed and free from peer pressure, especially from current senators. We challenge SGA to review its current policy and work toward making elections fair for everyone.