Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Suctions Commission n Tuesday, Nov. 2, the student body of USC is going to have its first opportunity to try out on line voting. The “straw poll,” as it's being called, will include a pre-presidential election, as well as referendum-style items per taining to issues regarding changing the USC mascot and video poker. Everyone involved with Student Government considers this to be an im mense accomplishment, as this has re quired major revamping of the previous voting system. This “new and improved” system of voting should prove to be much easier and more convenient for the student Under this new system, every com puter accessible to a student is a polling location, meaning that many students will not even have to leave their room or house to vote. We are hoping that this ease of ac cess will lead to an increase in voter turnout. While the straw poll will not receive nearly as much advertising as the actu al SG elections, we should still be able to gauge its success. Once the straw poll is completed, we will be able to access the reliability and validity of the process. Assuming that all goes smoothly with this straw poll, the Judiciary Commit tee will introduce the elections codes revisions to the Senate, and the first on line SG election will be well on its way to becoming a reality. The goal is to have senate's approval of the process and codes revisions be fore Thanksgiving. For those who do not know, the on line elections will be conducted via VIP, which can be accessed through the uni versity's VIP address: www.vip.sc.edu. Once there, a student should log on us ing his or her student ID number and PIN number. Next, click on the “personal” tab and then choose “student government trvnc M Finally, follow the directions to make selections. The process is incredibly simple and should take no more than five minutes. Every student at this university should be able to find five minutes be tween 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. to log on and vote. Members of the 2000 Elections Commission have recently been cho sen. These are the students who will have the greatest hand in making online elec tions happen. Great pains have been taken to make the commission as diverse as possible, in terms of demographics, scholastic in terests and class. As it now stands, the commission is made up of one freshman, four sopho mores, two juniors and two seniors. Three members are male and three members are African-American. Scholastic interests of the commis sion include political science, dance, business and biology, among others. The end product has proven to be an eager and willing commission. As for my personal goals as com missioner, 1 am shooting for three main goals. First, t want tne urst-ever online elections to come off without a hitch. In addition to that, I want the online elections to lead to a higher voter turnout. Secondly, it is my goal to run the most fair and just election possible this spring. Last year, the job of the commission was made easier by the high integrity of the candidates. I can only hope for the candidates this year to set the same tone in the upcoming election. Finally, I want to help provide a fun learning experience for all members of the commission. Many of this year's members have no prior experience with student gov ernment, so I want to make sure that their initial impression is the best pos sible. Up ahead lies a year of new begin nings for the SG elections. If all goes as planned, the new elec tions process will expedite and improve elections here at USC. Technology is definitely “the wave of the future,” and USC will soon take one more step to ward that way. Saba Ladenheim The Gamecock The 1998-1999 Elections Commission tallies the vote on election night 1999. Malik Husser was named the SG President that night