ASUO Elections Guide Part 2: Unlocking the elections

Dahlia Bazzaz

March 27, 2016

(Raquel Ortega/Emerald)

This is the second of a three-part guide to ASUO elections. To learn more about how student government is structured, click here for part one. If you’re looking for a full ballot of people running for student government, click here for part three.
In less than two weeks, you’ll be able to decide who will represent you on next year’s student government. From April 4-8, voting on DuckWeb will open to select next year’s members of student government.

So, how does this process work every year?

It helps to think of it in terms of the U.S. federal election system with a few modifications.
ASUO Elections, which are monitored by the ASUO Constitution Court and coordinated by a team called the Elections Board, follow a party system. These parties are called “slates.” Unless a candidate for ASUO president wishes to run independently, every person running for a position on student government campaigns under a slate.
This year, University of Oregon students can choose between three slates: I’m with UO, Duck Squad and One Oregon. Each slate is made up of the candidates seeking positions on executive, senate and finance committees. Though the platforms or views aren’t as polarized between ASUO slates as, say, between democrats or republicans, each one focuses on a set of issues —bringing back the 79x bus line’s post-midnight hours, for example.

How will voting look on DuckWeb?

In addition to three ballot measures, you’ll be electing over 100 candidates this year. Here are the positions you’ll be voting on, divided by branch:

Senate: Twenty-three different seats, each with one or two candidates per slate competing for each seat. Though you can see a candidate’s slate affiliation, you can pick and choose whom you’d prefer fill the seat regardless of slate.

Finance committees: One to three candidates per slate seeking seats on each of the four different financial subcommittees. Though you can see a candidate’s slate affiliation, you can pick and choose whom you’d prefer fill the seat regardless of slate.

Executive: The ASUO president, external vice president and internal vice president all run on a single ticket for ASUO executive. These are grouped together by slate, meaning you can’t mix and match candidates from different slates.

How long does the election run?

The entire election and campaigning process is pretty short — just under two months. Candidate and slate registrations were due about a month ago to the ASUO Elections Board.

All three slates launched their social media campaigns on March 21, along with websites detailing their platforms and a full list of candidates.
During week one, the slates will begin ground campaigning, which involves setting up along 13th avenue and making phone calls to students.
On March 31 and again on April 4, there will be a Q&A with candidates.

Voting begins during week two, on April 4, and closes four days later on April 8 at 4 p.m.

How are the winners are determined?

In order for a candidate or for a slate’s executive to win an election, it must receive more than 50 percent of the vote. As you can probably imagine, this means that — more often than not — a runoff election occurs. In that case, the two candidates or executive slates that receive the highest number of votes, or at least 10 percent of the general votes, will be placed on the runoff ballot the following week. Voting would the take place again on DuckWeb starting April 11 with results being available April 15.