With the WLUSU election fast approaching, as both a Laurier student and a Canadian I feel like this is an excellent opportunity for me to contrast and compare some of the troubles and subsequent reforms that both my student and federal governments are currently undergoing.
Firstly, both WLUSU and the Government of Canada have been recently plagued by extremely low levels of voter turnout. As I discussed in my previous post, I do not believe that implementing something such as online voting would significantly counteract this problem in the federal vote. In regards to WLUSU however, I believe the switch to online voting will have an enormous effect. By using the two-pronged approach of allowing students to vote via their MyLearningSpace as well as providing voting stations on campus, it seems impossible to me that the percentage won't go up significantly.
In coming to this conclusion I am unfortunately speculating as to why the majority of students are not voting in the first place. Of course the primary reason would undoubtably be beause of lack of interest, but I would argue that another significant portion will be due to the inconvenience of voting (minimal as it may be). Thus, by making the vote as accessible as possible hopefully we will see an increased voter turnout this year and subsequently a greater deal of legitimacy behind our student government.
Finding a solution to our federal woes however may be a slightly more taxing problem.
Time seems to have proven you right, Jason. Here's an in depth look at the election results.
ReplyDeletehttp://waterloo.wlusu.com/content/documents/fileItemController/OfficialElectionResults2011.pdf
35% turnout doesn't sound like a big number but it's a massive increase for Laurier, as we have sometimes had difficulty meeting our quorum. I think I might post on this as well, if I do I'd appreciate any additional insights you may have on the topic.