To the Editor:
UNC recently wrapped up its Student Body President race. Facebook pages were created, signatures were gathered and candidates were sued.* The morning after Election Day, an article appeared informing the student body that Ashton Martin won with 51.8 percent of the vote. Other than reporting the number of voters, there were no other numerical facts.
The lack of information isn’t the fault of this newspaper. The Board of Elections does not publish election results, other than the name of the winner. No percentages, no vote totals, no rankings. Look at their Heel Life page, visit a defunct Board of Elections website. There are no available statistics.
The introduction of ranked voting in this past election makes transparency freshly relevant. The lack of publicly available information violates this tenant of election governance. Carolina has a diverse student body with equally diverse opinions and views. Fully reporting election results allows our elected leaders to more accurately take the temperature of the campus, not relying on what they perceive it to be.
North Carolina State University publicly displays the raw vote totals and percentages for most of their last nine elections. Based on their competent handling of the recent lawsuits, this board has showed itself able to do something similar. In the interest of a transparent and attentive student governance, the UNC Board of Elections should start by releasing the full results of this past election for each race, from student body president on down.
Johnny Rubin
UNC 2019
Public Policy
