It was platforms versus popularity as the ASUA Senate debated which weekdays would encourage the highest voter turnout during its Wednesday meeting.
The Associated Students of the University of Arizona Senate weighed whether primary elections should span Monday and Tuesday or Tuesday and Wednesday.
The basis of the debate was over how many organizations meet on those days.
According to a report from ASUA President James Allen, 109 UA organizations have meetings on Mondays, 77 on Tuesdays and 68 on Wednesdays.
Several senators raised concerns about having Monday be an election day since many Greek Life organizations have meetings that fall on that day. The primary concern was that candidates would be able to campaign for collective votes by visiting Greek Life organizations during their meeting times.
Sen. Jason Brown said elections are not supposed to be a popularity contest, but rather a reflection of a candidate’s platform. Sen. Kevin Elliot responded that elections are indeed a popularity contest, whether they should be or not.
Allen said the debate should not be happening at this point and that the issue should be about how to best promote voter turnout, not how to avoid potential conflicts with Greek Life.
He said the rumors that Greek Life has a large influence on the elections should be disregarded because, even if they are true, they should be looking at the amount of people not just Greek Life members ASUA can get to vote. Allen said that based on the numbers the elections should be held on Monday and Tuesday because that is when the most clubs meet during the week.
The senate voted to schedule Tuesday and Wednesday as voting days for the primary and general elections.
Senate members said elections should not run all three days because it is exhausting for the candidates, and there needs to be adequate time to count the votes by the end of the week. They also said turnout significantly decreases on the third voting day.
ASUA primary elections will be held on Feb. 28 and 29 and general elections will be held on March 6 and 7.
