Pros
-Skip button
Rationale: In the past if voters didn’t want to vote they would click abstain, and if abstain received the majority vote, the position would remain empty.
Prediction: This will increase the percent of people elected to positions. That is, if voters even notice the Skip button.
–Candidates Newsletter
Rationale: Voters usually don’t know that much about each of the candidates. This provides an alternative to judging them based on their facebook profiles.
Prediction: More people will vote for candidates than abstain. That is, if voters even notice the link to the Newsletter hidden within the Student Union Election e-mail.
Cons
-BigPulse Signing In
Rationale: For some reason (an issue with renewing the contract? technical glitches?), in the past two elections, BigPulse, the site that hosts the elections, has required voters to click “forgot password” and then log in with a username sent to their e-mail, rather than just signing in with their Brandeis usernames.
Prediction: Less people will vote because it’s a hassle. That is, if voters were going to even vote in the first place.
-BigPulse List of Positions
Rationale: I seem to recall that in previous elections, BigPulse allowed you to view all the different positions that were up for votes and then you could click on individual ones to vote in them as you saw fit. This also allowed you to make sure that you had voted in all of the categories. Now, you can only view one at a time, in a pre-determined sequence.
Prediction: Less people voting overall, because they are skipping through to vote only for certain positions. That is, if voters realize they aren’t done as soon as they click the first submit button.
Other things I noticed
-Both of the candidates for Senator for the Class of 2013 were endorsed by the Skydiving and Future Endeavors club.
-Of the Senator for the Class of 2015 candidates with bios on the Candidates Newsletter, only Haotian Shen was endorsed by a club.
-There are an astounding TEN candidates for the Senator for the Class of 2015. Yeah freshmen!!! (I mean first years)
-No one wants to run for Mods Quad Senator, Charles River Quad Senator (includes 567) or Racial Minority Senator. Well, some people want to run (ahem Nipun), but there are no official candidates and I haven’t seen much facebook activity advertising write-ins for these positions.
Thanks for the clarifications, Herbie.
Personally I found #1 helpful, but I can understand why others wouldn’t.
I did feel like the Candidate’s Newsletter could have been displayed more prominently/explained better. I think it’s a great idea, but not sure how many people consulted it.
#3 was just meant as trivia…isn’t that an odd coincidence? Or maybe there’s a logical reason, I just don’t know it.
I’m glad you guys are on top of #4, that’s probably the most important one.
Thanks for the feedback!
Couple things if I may ask/clarify.
1. “BigPulse allowed you to view all the different positions that were up for votes and then you could click on individual ones to vote in them as you saw fit.” – We took this away because we got a large amount of complaints that it was confusing voters. Think we should bring it back?
2. “if voters even notice the link to the Newsletter hidden within the Student Union Election e-mail” – we thought by sending out the Newsletter beforehand and placing it pretty clearly in the email, students would be able to see it. Does it really look that hidden?
3. “Both of the candidates for Senator for the Class of 2013 were endorsed by the Skydiving and Future Endeavors club” – Since there are two positions available for Class of 2013, it’s ok for groups to endorse 2 candidates
4. We will be working on fixing the sign-up process. We set up this link because it was more efficient/secure. We’ll keep you updated when we develop an easier way.
Thanks!
We didn’t
UNTIL JUST TODAY. PSYCHE
Check the byline Nipun, I haven’t written for Innermost Parts in ages.
…..sahar?
Thanks for the shout out Sahar!
Write-in Nipun Marwaha for Racial Minority Senator