January 14, 2005

GERALD SMASH

We're halfway through the elections, and I'm running on dark chocolate, raspberry juice, cold medication and anger. Sounds about right.
Livejournal's down, and I think this is a post that needs to be public, anyway.

The success (or failure) of these newly slateless election starts with the Elections Committee, and therefore, the Elections Administrator. Someone mentioned that the candidates all prepared for a slateless election, but the Elections Office hadn't. When I applied for the job, I laid out three important points:

- slateless elections will be different, and high reaction speed is necessary.
- the elections need to run seamlessly - any sort of scandal now will follow candidates/executives through the year, and only makes everyone look bad.
- the elections office should act as a resource before the elections; possibly even running campaign workshops before the elections start to ensure that everyone knows what they're getting into.

None of these things have happened.

What's happened instead?
- at times, the Elections Administrator is away from his office to teach dance classes. Furthermore, the club which he's involved with (probably in some sort of leadership role, which is another thing that should be looked into) posters over candidates posters. Gina has a photo, but unfortunately, LiveJournal is down and I don't have the URL handy.
- the EA "gets tired of doing elections stuff" and turns a forum over to one of the at-large members. Turning over a forum? Great, moderating is valuable experience. Doing it because you don't want to run it? Absolutely ridiculous.
- I asked him for a market value on shirts on Tuesday. He has yet to get back to me. Elections run for 14 days, and he's taken over 4 to answer a question. That's just short of a third of the entire period. Absurd.

and don't get me started on the all-candidate forums on Wednesday; not having prepared questions is iffy, but having the candidates ask the other candidates questions simply doesn't work. I suspect that the Ubyssey didn't take Spencer seriously because he didn't get a chance to answer a serious question.

I'm not the only one who feels this way, and something could/should come out of it, but I don't know what.
Suggestions?

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