Final numbers from the Student Association-sponsored Homecoming election showed that 1,608 students voted, which is up by a couple hundred from the Senate elections.
This was the second election held by the SA’s new electronic voting system. Overall the elections were without any problems or inconveniences, said Mary E. Brown, elections commissioner for the SA.
“I think everybody was once again pleased with the electronic voting,” Brown said. “In The Union there were rarely lines, and when there was a line, nobody waited in line over a minute.”
The same electronic voting procedure developed by MSU’s Information Technology Services for the Senate race was used again. Some adjustments were made, and voting places were changed, said Debbie Fulton, director of information systems for ITS. During the Senate election students voted in the library computer commons, Butler Hall and the Dawg House Coffee Shoppe in The Union.
“This time we set up polls at the Sanderson Center and in The Union,” Brown said. “The numbers at the Sanderson weren’t as high as we had hoped, but I really think we are going to keep the Sanderson Center as a voting place.”
The Butler polls were not used this time because during the last election a very small number of students used them, Brown said.
Also, the library was not used again. Even though turnout there was good in the Senate election, using the computer commons caused confusion because some students came to use the computers for reasons other than voting, Brown said.
“We want to use the library for voting because we got such a good turnout last time,” Brown said. “We just need to figure out how to cut down on the inconveniences to students.”
“We do not want to unnecessarily reserve resources in the library computer commons and inconvenience students in the process,” Fulton said.
The electronic voting system allows the SA to control who can vote in which race, Fulton said. “The rules set which population of students can vote for each position and how many votes they can cast overall.”
For this election the program allowed every student to vote for Homecoming Queen, Mr. MSU and Miss MSU. Undergraduates also voted according to class standing by credit hours, Brown said.
SA President Adam Telle was elected Mr. MSU by six votes over friend Lamonte Stamps.
“Lamonte Stamps is my executive assistant and one of my best friends. Everybody was deserving on the ballot,” Telle said.
“It’s great to see students coming out and voting,” he said. “Thank you for contributing to the great atmosphere of MSU.”