All students should have the opportunity to run for student body president. But in recent years, the number of candidates who make it to election day has become unwieldy. The signature process that was supposed to weed out the candidates with the least support is not longer effective.
Under the current rules, student body president candidates must collect at least 1,000 unique signatures in order to appear on the ballot.
Collecting 1,000 signatures may sound like a daunting task, but with a total student body of nearly 29,000, there is plenty of opportunity. Last year, six candidates made the 1,000 signature cut.
On Tuesday, the Rules and Judiciary committee of Student Congress passed a proposal to raise the signature threshold for student body president candidates to 1,500.
The increase must be passed by Congress and signed by Student Body President Hogan Medlin before it can go into effect. Though it faces a long journey before it becomes law, discussion of the increase is a sign that Congress is making progress in streamlining election rules.
Each candidate who collects enough signatures get hundreds of dollars from student fees to fund his or her campaign.
Elections with many candidates often end in runoffs, resulting in more campaign spending and additional administrative costs. Raising the threshold would make the system work at a smaller cost, as candidates with less support wouldn’t make the cut.
In the real world, less successful political candidates often weed themselves out by failing to raise enough money to run a campaign.
In the world of student government, this is not an option, since candidates that collect 1,000 signatures automatically receive public financing.
