Editors Update: King’s Students’ Union elections have been further extended until Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2o2o. After the prior extension (ending on Oct. 9), the quorum was still not met. Please find more details in the image below.
The King’s Students’ Union is extending councillor elections after less than a quarter of students voted.
According to KSU election bylaws, at least a quarter of all students need to vote for a position before they can declare a winner. The chair ruled to extend the election period after polls closed on October 7 and they hadn’t yet received enough votes.
Chief Returning Officer Lara Van de Venter, says in an email that none of the voting pools have met their twenty-five per cent quorum yet.
“We only have about half of the votes we need for Member at Large and varying amounts for others,” says Van de Venter.
With COVID-19, the KSU moved voting online. Students can place their votes through a Google Form, where they choose either which candidate they want for each position or to reopen nominations. Students must include their B00 student number as proof they are entitled to vote.
To learn more about the candidates, you can find their platforms and speeches on the KSU Facebook page.
To learn more about the candidates, you can find their platforms and speeches on the KSU Facebook page.
The link to the polls was sent to students’ Dal emails on Oct. 6. Students may have trouble finding the link, says Van de Venter, because many emails have gone to students’ spam folders.
Van de Venter says that visibility has been an issue in this election.
“Online voting has been very difficult this year because we no longer have the privilege of being open and visible to the student body on campus and in front of Prince Hall,” says Van de Venter. Because of this, voter turnout has been much less than expected.
She says that the elections staff looked at many platforms to use, but landed on Google Forms due to ease of use and easy collection of student numbers. But, there are some drawbacks.
“Unfortunately, it is not as anonymous as it would normally be, because I have access to who each student has voted for,” says Van de Venter. “In my position I cannot and will not share that information.”
After this round of elections ends, Van de Venter will continue running elections committee. Next up is preparing for the spring executive elections. “Hopefully I will have a better idea of what to do next semester for our executive elections!” says Van de Venter.
This story will be updated if the situation progresses.
Chief Returning Officer Van de Venter says that students can contact her directly at cro@ksu.ca for assistance.
