LUCC discusses election issues

Chris Chan

In the first LUCC general council meeting of 2003, Council members sought to pave the way for the new members, as well as addressing upcoming campus elections and several other issues.In a unanimous vote, the Council agreed to extend the deadlines for applying to run in the elections. Many of the positions are currently uncontested races, and the extra time would allow for actual competitions wherein voters would have a chance to choose the candidate whose views best match their own.

There have also been some complaints that there were insufficient posters and advertisements telling the deadlines for registering. Many halls had few prominent signs with the pertinent information, and even though signs were not the only means of conveying information (there were also notes on the main page of the Lawrence website, the “Downer Sucks” website, and signs in the Memorial Union), the Council notes that the extension of the deadline is fully allowable by the Lawrence community.

President Cole Delaney noted, “The ultimate deadline is when the elections have to be,” meaning that the campaigning process only irrevocably ends once the elections have been held. This would not make a new candidate’s campaigning processes easy. Paul Shrode pointed out that “if the deadline is extended… a candidate who decides to run in that time has a lot of work to do,” i.e. gathering signatures and alerting the Lawrence community to their candidacy, plus it really helps a candidate’s campaign to have his or her views published in the Lawrentian forum.

Previous elections have brought many complaints, and Delaney said, “Elections bring out a wide range of emotions.” Delaney also announced a plan to eliminate the possibility of repeat voting via using phones to connect polling places on campus to assure that no one votes more than once. “It’s going to be really cool and it’s going to be really good,” said Delaney. With efforts like the aforementioned ones, the LUCC hopes to do all it can to improve the Lawrence community.

One project of note came from the Experimental Projects Grant Committee. In a practically unanimous vote (only one member voted “nay”), the members of LUCC voted to approve a measure instituted by Reid Stratton. Six hundred dollars were allocated in order to fund the production of a booklet to which Lawrence students and professors would contribute essays arguing against a war with Iraq. About four hundred such booklets would be printed, and the copies would be distributed throughout Appleton for the general public.