Student congress’ rules and judiciary committee passed a bill Tuesday which, if passed through student congress, would overhaul campus elections law.
Several amendments to Title VI, the portion of the Student Code pertaining to student government elections, were discussed in an attempt to clarify and streamline election rules.
One approved measure would require more signatures for student body president candidates who wish to appear on election ballots.
It proposes increasing the number of signatures required to run for student body president from 1,000 to 1,500.
Another amendment passed through the committee would raise the number of signatures required to run for student congress from 20 to 35. The amendments will be consolidated into a full bill and passed on to student congress for a vote.
Student Body President Hogan Medlin was one of the 30 people in attendance. He discussed the difficulty that the increase would create for potential candidates.
“It will be even harder this year,” he said. “I value the idea of having qualified, fewer candidates, but I also am not sure that we should really keep anyone from running for student body president.”
Last year was the first year that candidates for student body president were required to obtain 1,000 signatures. Medlin said he thinks it is too soon to increase this number again. He was the only candidate who collected more than 1,500 signatures in the first stage of last year’s election.
The increase passed 7-3.