USG prepares for elections

Two months before USG elections are to take place, USG gets ready by revising the election code and electing commissioners

It's beginning to look a lot like elections . . .

Although the Undergraduate Student Government elections are almost two months away, USG is already preparing for the campaign season.

USG President Sharon Entenberg is beginning her search for elections commissioners and elections court members, and the USG Elections Code will be revised by Governmental Relations Committee Chair Blair Schwartz. Both Entenberg and Schwartz said they are hoping to eliminate the problems that occurred during last year's campaign season.

"I think we're already learning from our mistakes," said Entenberg, who ran in her first USG election last year.

Applications for the four elections commissioners, the four-member elections court and the special prosecutor are available. The commissioners are responsible for overseeing the campaigns, debates and voting. Entenberg said she is looking for qualities such as organization, time commitment and patience.

"All of the people that are running are tired and frustrated, they're going to take it out on the commissioners," said USG Chief of Staff Erin Strout, who helped run Entenberg's campaign and recalled the many times they called or paged the commissioners in the middle of the night.

Although all commissioners are paid, Entenberg said the money does not equal the amount of time commissioners are required to put in.

"You don't do it for the money," she said. "The $100 was earned in the first night."

The court hears all election-related complaints and appeals and the special prosecutor represents the commission's complaints.

However, Schwartz would like to lessen the court's load by limiting the number of "little rules" that result in many minor fines.

"The main thing I noticed with the code is the code is so complicated," she said. "I'm very intent on simplifying the code."

The exactness of some of these rules practically guarantees that candidates will have to pay some fines. Schwartz said she would rather eliminate some of the minor violations and raise the spending limits.

The code still has to be approved by the Legislation and Appropriations Review Committee and the USG Senate before taking affect. However, Schwartz said, most of the code will remain unchanged, avoiding confusion among commissioners who will receive the current code.