Aside from providing access to e-mail, grades, schedules and
events, MyUCLA has been playing an integral role in undergraduate
student government by hosting their elections for the past two
years.
The Web site’s involvement in the Undergraduate Students
Association Council started as an alternative to ballot voting
during a special election in 2000, and evolved into the sole voting
method in spring 2003, a method that remains independent of
election politics.
“We don’t want to have any bias,” said Eric
Splaver, director of College Information Services, maintaining that
his role is straightforward.
“We provide a methodology that allows more students to
vote.”
“The politics don’t affect me,” Splaver said,
adding that MyUCLA and USAC have strictly a business relationship,
especially since MyUCLA charges a small fee for the service.
This year’s primary elections saw a slight drop in turnout
from last year with 24.2 percent of students voting. But a rise in
voter turnout occurred in the runoff elections last week with 6,263
““ or 26.4 percent ““ of students voting.
Splaver added that ideally, he would like to see a larger number
of voters and he believes if numbers are not continuously
increasing, then there is room for improvement.
In the past, technical difficulties have been rare during USAC
voting sessions, but there is always a certain degree of
possibility for a technical glitch with machines, Splaver said.
The voting service was available 24 hours a day in the 2003
elections, but this year council voted to limit voting hours.
MyUCLA was not pleased about the time restriction since the rest
of the site’s services are available around the clock, said
Mike Cohn, Elections Board adviser.
“They were concerned about the break in service,”
Cohn said. He added that this is one of the issues that needs to be
addressed for next year. Councilmembers have said they implemented
the restrictions to mimic the real elections, but some questioned
whether certain councilmembers wanted to limit voting to increase
their chances of winning.
On the technical side, Cohn said the service has been relatively
flawless and there are no questions in terms of accuracy and
MyUCLA’s ability to carry out impartial elections.
He explained that MyUCLA is a very secure service and the Web
site representatives do not know how students vote because both the
student identification numbers and respective votes are stored in
different locations. Thus, it is possible to see who voted and what
the votes were, but not the specific vote cast by each
individual.
“In all transactions there is trust that goes on,”
Splaver said regarding the possibility of tampering with election
results.
“Theoretically, I have access (to the elections) “¦
but it wouldn’t make sense,” he added, saying he draws
the biggest benefit from hosting the elections and not from who
wins.
This desire to provide service motivates the team of 14 –who
usually oversee the operation of MyUCLA ““ to do extra work
during elections time and ensure the process runs smoothly.
“I derive tremendous gratification when I know we have
made things simpler for students here,” Splaver said.
Splaver said his office wants to be involved in the elections in
the future, but added that it is up to the council to do an
analysis to make changes.
“We enjoy hosting the elections and think it’s good
exposure for MyUCLA,” Splaver said.
He and said they provide the service based on what they are
asked to do by council and the Elections Board.
“The last thing we want to do is get involved in the
politics of what’s going on,” Splaver added.
“It’s critical that what we do is what the Elections
Board asks us.”
Splaver said though he might have ideas as far as what he thinks
is best for the elections, he never discusses those ideas with the
Elections Board or council.
“USAC is in good hands and my office wants to see more
people vote,” Splaver said.
Roy Samaan, chairman of the Elections Board, said he assumes
there should not be much change in the way next year’s
elections are run, since he believes this year’s were very
successful.
He added that the turnout shows that the changes made to the
Elections Code did not hinder students’ voting.
“The system we have is working … whatever we did, we did
right,” Samaan said.