All four ASU Senates voted Friday in favor of a bill that would amend the election codes across the campuses for students who plan to run for a USG position.
Downtown, Polytechnic and West campuses held their elections last spring under the same elections code, but Tempe held its last elections under its own code. This is the first time all four codes will be the same.
“It makes sense that since we’re under the same constitution, that we function under the same elections code,” downtown Senate President Joey Amonett said.
A pan-campus committee that included the four Senate presidents, the newly renamed elections commissioner and ASU staff advisers met on Feb. 1 to create the code, titled SB 51.
Dan Ashlock, a student government staff adviser, said the fact that the code will affect all four campuses is the biggest change. The new code will also effect election spending for executive tickets.
Tempe’s representative successfully obtained a higher executive ticket budget for Tempe than that of the other three campuses, arguing it is needed due to the larger student body, Ashlock said. Candidates on the USG Tempe executive ticket can spend up to $1,250 total on election costs, whereas the executive tickets of the other three campuses are allowed to spend up to $750. Senate candidates in all four student governments can spend up to $250 on election costs.
Additional changes in SB 51 include changing the credit requirement from seven units to six units for half-time ASU students who wish to hold student government positions.
The new election code requires that all debates, regardless of their sponsors, be registered with the Elections Commission, Ashlock said. This was not in the elections code used on the Downtown, Polytechnic and West campuses during the last election cycle, he said.
Several position titles were also changed. The elections director will now be known as the elections commissioner. The assistant elections directors will now be known as the assistant elections commissioners.
Penalties for elections code violations were also revised, according to Jon-Paul Flodin, Senate president on the West campus.
Applications for 2013-2014 student government positions will likely be available beginning next week, Amonett said. Student government elections will be held on April 3 and 4.
Contact the reporter at stephanie.habib@asu.edu
