ASUC Affairs
Polling Place Power-Up

The number of people who voted in last year’s ASUC election, 10,683, just so happens to be a record turnout. But this electoral peak was hardly distributed equally among the 17 polling places. Even with graduate student objections, the decision to close stations to save money is the practical stance to take in the current elections environment.

Locations chosen for removal—the Haas School of Business courtyard, the Boalt Hall School of Law courtyard, the Lower Campanile Plaza—are among the least popular places to vote on campus. The other dropped venue, near the Valley Life Sciences Building addition, hasn’t even been used in the past three years. The introduction of online voting makes trimming down campus voting areas a logical progession.

But the eventual funding boost resulting from removing stations was held up by the question of which locations to remove. Graduate students were concerned that the original list, which removed stations near Etcheverry Hall and the Genetics and Plant Biology Building instead of the Campanile location, unfairly targeted graduate students.

And while the original five areas may be graduate-student laden, they also represented only 85 of the more than 10,000 votes cast. Response to the alleged discrimination was equally apathetic: Only six graduate students said they would be unable or less likely to vote if these stations were eliminated. Preserving the other two stations may be valuable for bringing in more diverse disciplinary backgrounds, but probably won’t impact electoral participation.

With the $2,916 saved by station cuts, the ASUC should focus on making the elections more visible. Fliering, chalking and other forms of relentless campaigning—the very means used to promote voting for a candidate—often drive many students to avoid Upper Sproul Plaza at election time. With students out of the loop at such a crucial time, alternative forms of publicity should be a focus for the newly freed funds.