LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 19, 1997 - 5
Students face 4 ballot questions
By Katie Pona
1ily Staff Reporter
Students voting in the Michigan Student Assembly
elections today and tomorrow will see more than a list
of names vying for assembly seats and executive offi-
- positions - they also will encounter four ballot
stions.
Students will be asked to either support or deny
_$6.50 in fee increases - $1 that will fund community
service efforts, and a two-term $5.50 increase to
finance a drive to create a Untiversity student regent.
. Two other proposals - concerning the formation of
;ex-officio MSA positions and student support for the
removal of a 10-term teaching limit for graduate stu-
-dent instructors - also will appear on the ballot.
LSA Rep. Andy Schor said the two-term fee
increase would go specifically toward efforts to get a
stion on. the 1998 Michigan state ballot asking
statewide voters if the University should have a stu-
°dent on the Board of Regents.
"The money would go toward hiring a firm that will
collect signatures from people (in the state),' Schor
said. "I hope (students) pass it for its merit, instead of
voting it down for its expense."
Schor, who has worked as the assembly's Student
Regent Task Force Chair for the past year, said the
question will need to be put on the state ballot through
s port from citizens' signatures, since it would never
ke it through the state senate.
Currently, the University only has one ex-officio
regent, University President Lee Bollinger.
LSA junior Jamie Long said she is not going to vote
during the MSA elections, but that she would not
mind her student fee being raised by $5.50 for two
semesters.
"I would support that, yes," Long said. "It's not that
much and, if it's going to make a difference, that's
cool."
Frank Dubrava, an Engineering first-year student,
said the fee increase doesn't seem
excessive to him, but the majority
of students may not support it. 1 thin
"I think a lot of (students) will
vote no just because of a fee wiIIv t
increase," Dubrava said.
The only question put on the because
ballot by student petition was
sponsored by UM.Serve, a increase
coalition of community service
organizers who work to gain
funding for community service Engineering I
projects.
LSA senior Valerie Press said
the funds from the $1 fee increase per-student per-
semester would be allocated to groups specifically for
community service purposes by a committee of mostly
students, along with faculty and staff involved in com-
munity service.
"For the most part, community service groups on
campus are struggling for money," said RC junior
Charlie Walker, adding that groups will have more
time to work in the community if they don't have to
spend so much time fundraising.
"I think there's great support for community service
ik
:rt
on this campus and I hope it does pass," said Mary
Beth Damm, assistant director at the learning through
community service office.
While Schor said that ultimately the regents must
approve any fee increases, he said they should support
any fee increase first passed by students.
Another MSA ballot question will ask students to
vote on whether student orga-
nizations with at least 400
Sa lot DUD members should have ex-offi-
cio, or non-voting, seats on
no jUSt the assembly.
LSA first-year student
of a fee Andre Grewe said he will vote
to have ex-officio members
on the assembly.
"It would be good to get the
Frank Dubrava groups' ideas out and have
st-year student their voices heard on the
assembly," Grewe said.
If students support the
fourth ballot question, MSA will lobby the LSA
administration to remove the current limit placed on
graduate student instructors, which does not allow
them to teach for more than 10 LSA terms, or five
years.
Dubrava said he probably will not support this ballot
question.
"At a certain point, unless (GSIs are) trying to
become a professor, chances are you're not going to be
in grad school for ten terms," Dubrava said. "You
shouldn't be a GSI anymore by that point."
VOTING
Continued from Page 1.
therefore, I don't think voting for
(MSA) would do anything," Hill said,
adding that she did not know students
could vote electronically. "It hasn't
been advertised enough."
Hill said the field is too saturated
with candidates.
"I think there's probably too many
candidates with too many positions that
students don't know who to vote for,"
Hill said.
Blake said that although the electron-
ic ballots will be utilized by some stu-
dents, many will still vote with the
paper ballot.
"I think we'll still have a good num-
ber (of paper ballot voters)," Blake
said. "(But) I think more students will
vote because of the -online voting
option."
Yoder said the MSA voting system
is as secure as using Wolverine
Access.
"It's actually slightly better than
the Wolverine Access model," Yoder
said.
Blake added that the candidates ulti-
mately will influence how many stu-
dents vote, both electronically and on
paper.
"No matter what we may do, the can-
didates are the ones who actually
encourage and influence the voting,
Blake said. "In the end, it's really the
candidates."
She said MSA might move to have
all future voting done electronically, but
that change will depend on voter
turnout in this election.
"We're going to see how this semes-
ter goes and next semester," Blake
said.
But Blake said MSA officials d(not
want to discourage students who may
not know the ins and outs of using com-
puters.
Friedrichs said future elections will
include an official election information
page that students can access to learn
more about the candidates.
Students with a modem in their.resi-
dence hall rooms or in their homes can
access the voting link by goiii'to
http://mnn i:wich.edui-vote.
Students can catch up on the latest
candidate information by goiqg to
httlp:/wwumnich.edii. 1inform.
The University of Michigan
Program for the Study of Complex Systems
Third Annual
Interdisciplinary Symposium
on Complex Systems
State considering vote-by-mail system
March 20, 1997
Rackham Amphitheatre
LANSING - Forget those long lines at the voting
0 th that eat into precious time away from work -
d your patience.
Michigan lawmakers are considering letting citi-
zens vote by mail. If it passes, voters would fill out
election ballots at their leisure, drop them in the mail-
box and check one civic duty off their list.
In fact, they couldn't vote at the polls. No polling
places are set up in vote-by-mail elections.
Three bills in the legislature - two sponsored
by Democrats, one by a Republican - along with
growing support for the idea and success stories
ity other states are pushing the idea closer to
"The time for vote-by-mail in Michigan has
arrived," Ingham County Clerk Mike Bryanton told
the House Local Government Committee yesterday as
it considered one of the bills. "Michigan must move
.boldly into the twenty-first century"
Despite such support, voting-by-mail won't be
available any time soon. Such a system isn't likely to
be ready in time for the 1998 elections. It might be in
place by 2000, but could be delayed even longer than
ecretary of State Candice Miller- Michigan's top
elections official - is one of those putting on the
brakes.
Miller spokesperson Liz Boyd said yesterday
that her boss is "very supportive" of mail-in elec-
tions, but doesn't foresee moving forward on the
idea until a new computerized master list of voters
is in place.
The state's $7.6 million "qualified voter file" - a
statewide database intended to virtually eliminate
duplicate voter registrations - is scheduled to be
ready by January 1998. But it will take at least
through November 1998 to make sure it is bug-free,
Boyd said.
"We feel very strongly that mail-in elections at this
point are really premature," Boyd said. "We don't
want to move hastily in a way that's going to jeopar-
dize the integrity of elections."
Senate Majority Leader Dick Posthumus said he
prefers the Republican bill, which would give any
voter the option of asking for an absentee ballot with-
out requiring clerks to mail ballots to all registered
voters, as the Democratic bills would do.
Eventually making the mail-in system the only way
to vote "just creates more possibility for special inter-
est groups to have more influence over the voting
process," the Alto Republican said.
Those who testified yesterday before the House
panel - mostly lobbyists for townships, county clerks
and municipalities - listed some of the many kinks in
voting by mail that would need to be worked out.
They agreed there should be no increase in vot-
ing by mail until the qualified voter file is ready
and duplicate names are purged from registration
lists.
And most believe mail-in voting should be test-
ed in a few local races before being used for
statewide elections like presidential and U.S.
Senate races.
Still, all said they would like to see the idea move
forward, mainly because they hope it would reduce
costs and raise voter turnout, which was just 55 per-
cent in the 1996 general election.
"Anything to give easier access to the citizens of
this state to the voting process," said Flora McRae,
vice president of the League of Women Voters in
Michigan.
Seventeen other states hold elections by mail,
though most are for local, nonpartisan offices.
But last year, Oregon captured national attention
when it held a vote-by-mail election to replace Bob
Packwood in the U.S. Senate. Sixty-six percent of vot-
ers participated, despite an ice storm.
Oregon, Nevada and North Dakota used mail-in
voting for their 1996 presidential primaries.
No states so far use mail-in voting for other
statewide primary or general elections.
1:00 - 6:00 pm
Opening Remarks
Robert Savit, Director
Program for the Study of Complex Systems
1:00 pm
2:15 pm
3:30 pm
4:00 pm
5:15 pm
6:00 pm
Rules for the Evolution of a Genetic Switch
Michael Savageau, The University of Michigan
The Simplistic Roots of Complexity
Harold Morowitz, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study
George Mason University
BREAK
Natural Selection and Complex Systems
David Sloan Wilson, Binghamton University
Panel Discussion on group selection and its implicatiors.
Panelists from UM include John Holland, Professor of
Psychology & EECS, Randolph Nesse, Professor of
Psychiatry, and others.
Reception - Assembly Hall
The Symposium is free and registration is not required. Inquiries can be
directed to Katherine Richards at 763-3301 or kjrichumich.edu
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Mike Nagrant
MMA President
Olga Savic
MMA Vice President
Lauren Shubow
Geeta Dhatia
. LSA SG
LSA-SG
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