After a tumultuous presidential election last spring, the Undergraduate Council of Students' election reform efforts could result in a campus-wide referendum on instant-runoff voting as early as next semester.
The Election Review Commission, formed this fall to address a range of problems from past elections, has largely focused its discussions on potentially implementing instant-runoff voting. In this system, voters rank the candidates, instead of voting for a single person.
Avi Robbins GS said although he didn't know about instant runoff voting until about a week ago, he thinks the system could help make Brown's elections more fair and equitable.
UCS Vice President Charley Cummings '06 said fairness has been a concern in recent elections because candidates have been unable to secure a majority. Under the current system, a runoff election is required if no candidate obtains a majority vote.
UCS President Joel Payne '05, who won last year's election after a runoff against Ari Savitzky '06, said the experience of going through a runoff election makes him think the idea of instant runoff voting has value. But Payne does not sit on the election board, and he said he wants to see the results of a campus-wide referendum on the issue.
Cummings said he thinks last year's election revealed that the current system is outdated. He said UCS decided to give more serious consideration to a procedural change last year, when for the fourth time in a row, no one presidential candidate received a majority of votes.
Cummings said a fairly strict interpretation of the constitution reveals that it does not preclude instant runoff voting. But some members of UCS think this shouldn't happen without a constitutional change.
"It's only feasible if we rewrite the constitution, and we have to decide if it's something we want to do," said Megan Saggese '06, who sits on the commission.
"If we decide that this is something we want to do, before we undertake it, I think this is something that the students should vote on first," Cummings said.
Amendments to the UCS constitution require a two-thirds affirmative vote in an undergraduate student body referendum.
If the commission and UCS decide instant runoff voting is the right protocol to adopt, a referendum to amend the constitution would be put together in the early second semester, Cummings said. Prior to the referendum, UCS would likely set up a WebCT survey to determine student opinion about possible courses of action.
The WebCT survey would be necessary because it's unclear how much students know about instant runoff voting.
"I think a lot of students aren't really aware of exactly how it works. Those engaged with the Green Party or with the 2000 election have heard a lot about it. Students will have to decide if it will work in student elections," Cummings said, adding that information about the process must be simple so that elections do not become more complicated and bureaucratic.
Some students not only already know about the system, they've formed definite opinions.
"I'm definitely in favor of instant runoff voting in any situation," said Amelia Rosenman '08. "It allows people to vote for who they most want without wasting their vote. (Instant runoff voting) encourages people to vote and vote for who they really want to see in office. It is a more accurate reflection of student opinion than just winner-takes-all."
But others think instant runoff voting might complicate the voting process rather than improve it. "What statistician came up with this method?" asked Christine Livoti '08, who said she thinks instant runoff voting is too confusing for a student election.
According to Cummings, many other student governments have successfully implemented this system, including Harvard's. According to Harvard's election rules for its undergraduate council, each qualified voter will be able to rank candidates in order of preference. Ballots will be tabulated using a system that will "progressively eliminate candidates with the lowest number of votes, and transfer the votes of students who voted for the eliminated candidates to those remaining candidates that were ranked the highest on the respective ballots," the election rules state.
Cummings said UCS has other options for improving elections, including requiring only a plurality for victory. Under this system, the candidate with the highest percentage of student votes wins, even if the candidate does not receive the majority of the votes. Another option is keeping the current system of having a runoff between the top two candidates, Cummings said.
Cummings, who is communicating with Computing and Information Services to determine if it is even possible to set up this system through WebCT, said the commssion and UCS are far from reaching a conclusion on instant runoff voting.
