Election Information
03 March 2003
Election guide page seven
And here’s how to T
hose of us who were lucky enough to be here for last year’s elections will recall the big, bold steps our Students’ Union took into the future. Never again would we use the antiquated pens, paper and ballot boxes, we were told. Now there were sleek, sophisticated machines to do all the hard work for us. Counting, voting, electioneering - it was all
STEP 1
computerised and much easier. Everybody’s happy! Except it didn’t quite work out like that. The computer gremlins reared their ugly heads and attacked, spreading their evil malaise of crashes, software bugs and misery wherever they went. So, this year the Union is playing it safe. It’s back to the ballot boxes for us, my friends, and putting little crosses in little boxes.
Except it’s not crosses of course, it’s numbers. Although we’ve headed back to the stone age in voting methods, the voting system is still very 21st century. It’s not one cross for one guy, it’s lots of numbers for lots of people! Confused yet? Then just read gair rhydd’s simple fourstep guide to voting in the Union elections 2003...
STEP 3
KNOW YOUR VOTING SYSTEM
The Union elections this year, like last year, are being run on the shiny new voting system known as “Single Transferable Vote”. Basically, this means that instead of putting one cross next to the one guy you want, you have to rank the candidates in order of preference. Your ballot paper might look like this: A.N. Other: 1 I. Mafake: 3 Donna Voetformi 2 This might sound needlessly complicated, but it’s actually more democratic because if your No.1 guy doesn’t make it, your vote isn’t “wasted” - it can then be counted as a secondary preference for someone else! Isn’t democracy wonderful?
WHERE TO VOTE
Between 9am and 5pm on March 18 to March 20 you can vote in: ● The Union first and second floors (until ● Redwood Building cybercafe 9pm on Tuesday) ● Humanities coffee shop ● The Graduate Centre ● Aberconway snackbar ● The Trevithick Building ● Tower Building cybercafé ● Maths Building cybercafe ● Biosciences Building ● Bute Building coffee shop ● The Med Club at Heath Hospital ● Glamorgan Building coffee shop Between 12pm and 7pm you can vote in the following Halls: Aberdare Hall (at reception) ● Talybont (at the Social Centre) ● University Hall (in the refectory) ●
STEP 2
WHEN’S THE ELECTION AGAIN?
Here’s when everything even slightly relevant to the Union elections is happening: Friday March 7 Campaigning begins Tuesday March 11 at 6.30pm Students’ Union Council in Council Room, Union Fourth Floor. Tuesday March 13 at 1pm Non-sabbatical candidates’ hustings in Seren Las Tuesday March 13 at 7pm Sabbatical candidates’ Question Time in the Council Room, Union Fourth Floor ● Tuesday March 18 Union Annual General Meeting: Voting begins ● Thursday March 20 Voting ends, election count begins at 7pm ● Monday March 24 Results published ● Monday March 31 gair rhydd Election special: your inside track on the tension and drama of the night ● ● ● ●
STEP 4
HOW TO VOTE
So you’re stood by the ballot box, and you want to know what to do next. Well, it’s simple. The only thing you need to be able to vote is a Union/NUS card, so show it to the nice people there and you’re away. You will be presented with a list of positions (much like the one on page 3 of this excellent pullout) and the people running for those positions. As explained above, rank them in your order of preference. You don’t have to vote for all the positions, and you don’t have to rank everyone there - you can leave some or all of them blank.
If you don’t understand any of this, don’t worry - there will be helpful people standing near the ballot boxes who will be able to explain it far better than a sleepdeprived student hack!
No democracy please, we’re students? W
ell, it’s that time of year again. Manifestos p l a s t e r e d everywhere, being mobbed on the union steps by randoms and being dragged into your refectory to vote for people you’ve never heard of. It’s sabbatical election time, only this year there’s a slight twist, with the non-sabbatical elections being held at the same time which inevitably means the scale of campaigning will be doubled. However, despite such fierce campaigning every year by potential candidates and coverage by Cardiff Union’s student media, election turnouts appear to mirror the national trend of government elections, being pretty poor by most people’s standards. The last four elections saw a turnout of no more than 23 per cent, which is by
We’re a lazy bunch, it seems - student turnout is normally very low, with some recent elections not even managing more than 20 per cent. Anna Hodgekiss examines why
n o m e a n s terrible but a little disappointing in a university of this size and with such a strong Students’ Union.
The average number of voters in each recent year could fill Solus no more than one and a half times. You only have to look around our Union to see that it’s an extremely busy place: at least three nights a week in Solus sell out before they even begin. Go into the shop or Seren Las at lunchtime and observe their popularity – the queue says it all. So whilst it seems many of us visit the Union frequently, the vast majority fail to think what goes on behind the scenes. Who is responsible for organising your IMG game on a Wednesday afternoon? Who makes sure you get fair representation when your coursework marks plummet unfairly? Who can you visit when your landlord screws you over and doesn’t return your bond? It’s the people that you vote for in these elections! Why is it that so few of us
vote? Is it really that we can’t be bothered? Current executive officers had their own ideas as to why turnout persisted so low. As an overseas student herself, Academic Affairs Officer Minelle Gholami believes that many international members feel the Union is orientated more towards home students and are inclined not to vote. She stresses that “the Union is for all students”. Equal Opportunities and Welfare Officer Emma Bebington feels that lack of awareness was partly to blame. “People don’t want to vote for people they don’t know much about,” she said. It is possible that students just have too many other things to worry about - such as the issue of student debt. So, it would seem that most people fail to vote through sheer laziness or lack of information. However, if you’re reading this election pull-out then you should have a certain degree of knowledge
on the big event - so there’s no excuse! Remember that the winning candidates will have a lot of power within the Union next year and even if you’re a final year student, surely you want
those following you through uni to get as much out of the delightful brown brick building as you did. Even if it was just throwing up your Jobshop earnings after a night out in Jive!
THE UNION ELECTIONS YOUR VIEWS Adam Drudge, second year English Language: “I think the executive’s very inaccessible and you hear nothing about it during the year. “Suddenly, the elections come round and people have no idea what they’re voting for. Every candidate promises the same sort of thing so how do you differentiate?” Katy Lee, third year Business: “Most people don’t care which is quite sad really. I reckon a fair few only vote because they’re hassled enough by campaigners everywhere and want to be left alone!” Ben Twiss, third year Economics: “Most third years feel like it doesn’t affect them. “Also, I don’t think a lot of people realise what it takes to run the Union”.