Organization heads toward switch from paper to electronic ballots this year

Election season will be a little different this year at California State University, Fresno, as students will now be voting electronically rather than on paper ballots.

With over 22,000 students enrolled at the university, last year only a little over 10 percent of the student population voted in the Associated Student, Inc (ASI) elections.

“I just don’t think people really know what ASI does on campus enough to where they want to go out of their way to vote,â€Â said senior business major Leslie Tinoco.

The lack of student participation is a major concern for ASI and the University Student Union (USU), who conducts the election, and a is top priority to be fixed.

In order to help create easier access for students to vote ballots will now be cast electronically, said Election Commissioner Allison Smith.

“We are really excited about this,â€Â said Smith, who feels that the new system will be more accessible for students and a great way to increase involvement.

In past years booths have been set up at the South Gym, University Student Union, the Satellite Student Union and a few other locations.

With the new electronic ballots students will still be able to go to polling stations and cast votes through computers at the normal locations, but they will also have the accessibility to do it from their home.

“Now that it’s online, I think students will consider voting,â€Â Tinoco said.

“It’s easier to do and hopefully, turnout will be higher.â€Â

Smith said that the Election Committee will be posting a link on the ASI Web site and has hopes of also making the ballot available through the MyFresnoState home page and on Blackboard.

But the process of getting an electronic ballot has not been an easy road, as a result of time and finding the right program to use.

“We talked about it briefly last semester but we just didn’t have time,â€Â said Smith.

“The other thing that we have been waiting on is figuring out how people will log in in to vote.â€Â

The election committee, according to Smith, has been trying to find a way to keep the voting private.

It was finally agreed upon that students would use their Fresno State login name and their ID number in order to register and vote.

With the committee in agreement, it signed a contract on Tuesday with Voter Net Solutions.

The group is known nationwide for holding electronic elections and is used by schools such as University of the Pacific, UC Berkeley, San Jose State and several others.

One of the best aspects of the electronic ballots is that each candidate will be pictured and have a biography next to their name with a list of things that they have been campaigning for.

“It will be nice because people will actually be able to tell who it is that’s running and what they stand for,â€Â Smith said.

In past years, the Fresno State election committee has hired the League of Women Voters to conduct paper ballot elections and while ballots will change, Smith said the committee would most likely still hire the women to monitor the on-campus stations for voting.

“The cost for doing it electronically is about the same, so we will have money left over to have them help out,â€Â said Smith.

The cost of the switch had been a major concern for the committee. Each year the elections committee is allotted $8,000 to conduct the election and to promote student involvement.

Hiring the League of Women Voters in the past has cost around $3,000 and the electronic voting will cost nearly $3,600.

The other money will be spent on campaigning for students to vote.

Advertisements in The Collegian, flyers and signs around campus are just some of the avenues being used to promote the elections.