The Election Planning and Advisory Committee has instituted changes to electoral policy that will simplify election rules and allow organizations to endorse candidates, according to EPAC Chair David Imamura '10. Imamura outlined the EPAC changes at the committee's first meeting of the term Wednesday night, at an informational session for potential candidates for this year's Student Assembly elections, to be held this Spring.
The new rules will apply to candidates for undergraduate student body president and vice president, class presidents, potential Green Key Society members and members of the Organizational Adjudication Committee, Imamura said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
In contrast to prior years, EPAC will permit campus organizations to endorse candidates, according to the new rules. Organizations will not be allowed to coordinate endorsements, Imamura said.
The changes are part of a concerted effort by EPAC to make the election process more accessible, Imamura said.
"We hope the changes made will encourage all organizations and students to become a more integral part of the election process," Imamura said.
The number of debates sponsored by EPAC will be also be limited to two in the upcoming election to encourage student organizations to sponsor debates, Imamura said.
Restrictions will still exist on how organizations can endorse candidates, Imamura said. For example, initial organizational endorsements will be limited to an e-mail exclusive to the group's members.
Candidates running for Assembly positions will also be able to endorse candidates in other races as long as they do not use their own campaign's financial resources to support another campaign, Imamura said.
Imamura outlined a more general strategy by EPAC to make the election process more "streamlined" in order to prevent candidates from being sanctioned for unintentional rule violations as has happened in past elections.
"In past elections, EPAC rules have been confusing and often self-contradictory, leading to candidates being sanctioned when they didn't even know what rule they were breaking," Imamura said.
The confusing nature of past election rules often lead to a difficult sanctioning process for EPAC, with "decisions being based off he-said, she-said accusations," he added.
The simplified rules aim to address the problems of past elections, in which candidates often violated the rules because they were tripped up by their complexity, Imamura said.
"The rules were so confusing it was very easy to get around them, and by making the rules clear we hope to ensure that the candidates will follow them," Imamura said.
One particularly troublesome rule had prevented candidates running on a joint ticket from combining their $125 campaign allotments. Under the new rules, candidates running together will be able to spend a combined $250 on their joint campaign, according to Imamura.
"We wanted [election regulations] to be as bare-bones as possible," Imamura said.
Imamura acknowledged that EPAC has played too large a role in previous election processes, but said he is hopeful these new rules will produce a better election.
"We want to have as open and inclusive an election as possible with as clear a rule set as possible," he said.
Committee members believe a more straightforward process will improve the elections, he added.
Imamura was sanctioned by EPAC during the 2009 Student Assembly elections for endorsing a student body president nominee before the elections officially began, The Dartmouth previously reported.
