On Wednesday, May 6, ASUCR held their sixth meeting of the quarter. At the meeting, Samir 

Al-Alami, a fourth-year political science major, expressed his concerns with the elections website during Public Forum. 

Al-Alami expressed that he felt a better job could have been done on the ASUCR elections website. He explained that not all students use social media and the Elections Committee used that as the primary source to provide elections information. He said that this made it difficult to, “actually find out what was going on in the election held last week. For example, on the ASUCR elections website, it said that voting information was to be announced.” 

On the ASUCR elections website, voting instructions were not given; instead, the website stated that they were “TBA” (to be announced). Instructions were never provided on the website for the duration of voting week. A mass email from ASUCR was sent to students regarding elections which stated that students should check their R’Mail for a personalized ballot link that would be accessible only during voting hours for a one-time use. The email encouraged students to view the ASUCR Elections Instagram page for more detailed instructions. 

Al-Alami went on to state that he felt that the lack of updates on the ASUCR elections website could have accounted for low voter turnout. Elections Director Dyanna Castaneda was not present at the meeting to address Al-Alami’s concerns. Total voter turnout this year was 11.14% with a total of  2,606 students voting. During the 2019 ASUCR elections, the election began on Monday, April 22 2019 and was supposed to end on Friday, April 26. Voter turnout stood at approximately 14% as of Friday, April 26, 2019. After being extended for two days, voter turnout in 2019 reached 24.19%. Due to technical difficulties with the voting technology and campus WiFi, former ASUCR President Semi Cole issued an executive order to extend elections week by two days. Elections results can be found at The Highlander’s election results guide. 

The meeting adjourned at 7:02 p.m. 

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include that in 2019, voter turnout stood at approximately 14% as of Friday, April 26.

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