For the first time in University history, Cornellians could log on to computers both on and off campus to make their voices heard in student government. New-at-large candidates Josh Bronstein ’05, Nick Linder ’05, Scott Toussaint ’05 and Darren Rumack ’04 were elected electronically to represent the freshman and transfer constituencies.
The election proceedings this year allowed students to vote from their own personal computers, off-campus computers or computer labs by using e-mail and a personal pin number rather than predetermined voting stations around campus.
The new system is in its experimental stages in an effort to increase voter turnout and to cut the costs of the election process, according to Mark Greenbaum ’02, S.A. executive vice president and director of elections.
“We’ve been tinkering with on-line voting for the last three years,” said S.A. President Uzo Asonye ’02 earlier this week. “In the past we used paper ballots, Scantron ballots. It was cumbersome and there were environmental and cost issues since we used a lot of paper. We also had to hire a lot of workers and it took a couple of days to tabulate the results.”
“I am pleased that nearly one third of all eligible freshmen and transfers voted