Approximately 9 percent of College alumni have cast their ballots online in the uncontested elections for two open seats on the Board of Trustees and the executive committee for the Association of Alumni, according to Association of Alumni President John Mathias '69. By this time in last year's election, 16 percent of alumni had voted online, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Because no petition candidates chose to run in the current election, Gail Koziara Boudreaux '82 and R. William Burgess '81 are running unopposed. They were nominated for the two open trustee seats by the Alumni Council on Dec. 3, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Burgess and Boudreaux could not be reached for comment by press time.
Approximately 32 percent of alumni voted in last year's election between John Replogle '88 and Joseph Asch '79, according to statistics provided by Justin Anderson, director of media relations for the College.
Based on his experiences voting in uncontested local elections in Chicago and the American Bar Association, Mathias said uncontested elections often diminish voter participation.
"I think that uncontested elections in general would not involve the level of voting or political activity that a contested election would," he said. "I don't think that necessarily translates into whether people are interested on not. I think you can have a nominated candidate who you think is terrific and not be motivated to vote because you assume they are going to win."
Diana Lawrence, director of communications for Alumni Relations, said she expects the turnout in this election to be comparable to past uncontested trustee elections.
"This participation rate is not unusual for uncontested elections," Lawrence said. "It soars when there is a lot of noise and campaigning."
Harry Enten '11, who runs the online blog Margin of Error that analyzes polling and electoral trends, agreed that elections with less competition typically have lower turnout than highly contested elections.
Because voting is often habitual, the current trustee race might discourage younger alumni from voting in future elections, Enten said. Younger voters also tend to be less likely than older voters to vote in uncontested elections, according to Enten.
"So in terms of school democracy, this pattern does not bode well," Enten said.
Prior to 2008, the Alumni Council could nominate up to three candidates for each alumni-elected trustee seat, which made uncontested elections rare, Mathias said. This policy of nominating several candidates for each seat, however, provided an unfair advantage to petition candidates since the Council nominees inevitably ended up splitting votes, Mathias said.
"If you nominate three candidates and you have a petition candidate running against you, chances of any one of your three candidates winning are very, very low," he said.
Asch's recent electoral loss and the high cost of campaigning may have discouraged alumni from running as petition candidates this year, Mathias said.
"If you are going to run in a contested election, the sad facts are that the contested elections of the past have had substantial price tags associated with them, Mathias said.
Proposals for election campaign finance reform have proven to be "political nonstarters," Mathias said. A now-defunct Association of Alumni Election Reform Study Committee, which formed in 2009 to assess campaign finance rules for Board and Association executive committee elections, studied the issue of campaign funding but failed to come to an agreement, The Dartmouth previously reported. Mathias said he favors finding a solution to reduce the funding burden on candidates.
In 2008, the Council amended its constitution to permit only nominating up to two candidates, according to Mathias. The Council also replaced a voting system that allowed alumni to vote for multiple candidates with a "one person, one vote" system, Mathias said.
The Council must nominate its candidates before it knows whether petition candidates will run. When making its initial decision, the nominating committee must either risk the possibility of an uncontested election, or nominate two candidates and risk splitting the vote, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Although Mathias favors altering the Council's constitution to allow it to nominate a second candidate if no petition candidates run, the topic has proven to be a "political lightning rod," he said. Alumni who believe such a policy would disadvantage petition candidates have actively opposed it, he said.
"In my view, it would be a good thing if the Alumni Council could in the event that there were no petition candidates nominate a second person," Mathias said.
Unless there is a "controlling consensus of politically active people," the current policy is unlikely to change, Mathias said.
Alumni can vote either online or via mail until the election ends on April 6, according to Mathias. The paper ballots will be tabulated after the election ends, he said. There is typically an even split between electronic and mail ballots, according to Lawrence.
