AS approves five members to its Elections Committee

Associated Students representatives approved five members for the 2004 AS Elections Commission Thursday night.

Juniors Debahuti Basu and Jennifer Belli join the Commission as voting members, while sophomore Todd Ricketts and freshman Jamie Buckner are a part of the non-voting Elections Committee.

Raylon Madan, a senior mechanical engineering major, is the new elections commisioner. He fills the position vacated by Paul Amador, who resigned little more than a week ago due to differences with the Finance Committee.

“ I want to reach out to every student. I want to end student apathy, stop students thinking ‘my vote doesn’t count,’ ” Madan said.

Poor voter turnout has plagued the past few AS elections, according to AS Adviser Connan Campbell.

“ Students aren’t really satisfied with the performance of AS, or they don’t really know what’s going on, and then fewer people vote the next time,” Campbell said to the new commission.

Madan has some ideas to combat the problem.

“ I want to use technology, or directly talk to the students. We’ll hold contests, games,” he said. “Elections is a serious issue, but we can make it fun.”

The election for AS positions for the 2004-2005 school year will be held April 21 and 22.

— Laban Pelz