Mount Allison students find themselves in another campaign this week, as fall elections for the Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) council are underway. The vote takes place this Thursday and Friday, Oct. 1 and 2, 2020.
The candidates are as follows:
For two Councillor at Large positions:
- Spencer Keller
- James Piers
- Erica Nowlan
- Rohin Minocha-McKenney
For one First Year Councillor position:
- Grace MacLean
- Alivia Warr
- Ca Nguyen
For one International Student Representative:
- Suchet Mittal
For on Gender and Sexual Diversity Representative:
- Eli Wood
While many of the candidates are competing for positions, there are some positions with just one candidate each.
Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) Chief Returning Officer Ian Richardson says students will vote using ranked ballots. For single candidate positions, students will simply vote yes or no. That ensures all elected representatives have received a majority of votes.
Richardson says MASU uses an online service called Simply Voting to run the elections.
“It provides, I think, a really fair system in terms of the ranked ballot,” says Richardson.
Instead of a first past the post system, where the person with the most votes wins even if it’s not a majority, a ranked ballot means students will rank the candidates as their first choice, second choice and so on. If no single candidate gets a clear first choice majority, then the last place candidate drops off, and the second choice votes on those ballots are assigned. This continues until one candidate has a majority.
For representative council positions, only votes from students who self-identify with that group will be counted towards that position.
Richardson says the Simply Voting system is secure and private. All information is deleted after the election is tabulated.
Students will receive voting links through their Mount Allison email accounts this Thursday, Oct. 1.
Richardson says the best way for students to find out about their candidates is to contact them directly or find them on social media.
“It’s so important for people to vote, just in terms of the fact that these are the people that will be representing you at Council,” says Richardson. “These are the people that will be able to vote on motions that matter to students.”
“In the past, we’ve seen much engagement with the Students’ Union in terms of students being directly able to say things that they want to see happen,” he says. “And the only way to really gain that stakeholder position is to really vote for those councillors that best represent you.”
Hear the full interview with MASU CRO Ian Richardson here: