A catch-22

This year’s student government elections have been plagued by miscommunication, last-minute changes and overall low voter participation.

A majority of the complaints furnished by candidates, debate moderators, ASPSU officers and the student community at large have focused on a breakdown of communication between the Elections Board and everyone else involved.

The Elections Board, a body of ASPSU comprised of appointed members and a student senator, is exclusively charged with registering the candidates, organizing the debates and running the election.

Schedules published on the elections board Web site have changed more than once, creating confusion and misinformation for candidates, moderators and students.

Student Fee Committee candidates Johnny Ozimkowski and Waddah Sofan nearly missed their debate Monday simply because they weren’t informed that the location and time had changed.

Seth Evans, the student senator serving on the board, stated that they have had problems with the scheduling office, forcing them to change rooms at the last minute.

“Sometimes when we were informed that a room wasn’t available, or someone couldn’t be there, this would happen very close to the planned day, so the turn around time for us wasn’t very long,” Evans said.

The candidates weren’t the only ones out of the loop, however.

The Portland State forensics (debate) team had, for the second year in a row, offered to moderate the debates.

According to Kelly Welch, student co-coordinator of the debate team, the previous year’s board had invited them to the planning meetings and coordinated dates and times with them for all the debates.

“This year’s board has set dates and times without consulting us whatsoever,” Welch said.

Evans has been the key liaison between the board and the forensics team this year. A member himself, Evans has chalked up the lack of communication to inexperience on the board as a whole.

“I would say that our biggest problem this year is general inexperience, especially in the leadership area,” Evans said.

Brain Gumport, vice chair of the Elections Board, explained that they’ve had a particularly difficult time scheduling rooms. However, Gumport is optimistic about coming weeks, claiming that the “speed bumps” are behind them.

“From here on out, everything will go smoothly,” Gumport said.

A weak showing at both the SFC and senate debates may prove otherwise when it comes down to the numbers on May 4, the start of the five-day election period when students can vote online at www.banweb.pdx.edu.

“Disseminating information isn’t very easy, especially with only five people on the board and the inexperience as well,” Evans said.

Evans said that publicizing the debates is difficult because of the high volume of commuter students on campus and the small size of the board.

He suggested that having a few more people just for legwork could help to get the word out more efficiently.
Hannah Fisher, ASPSU president, explained that the institution itself presents inherent challenges.

“It’s one of the hardest branches to recruit students for, they are assembled later in the year. This has always been an issue because students need to learn the bylaws, how to publicize the events and how to run the elections very quickly,” Fisher said.

She suggested that they would potentially revise the statute in order to form the board earlier in the year.

Inexperience coupled with lack of oversight triggered some concern in Ozimkowski, who said that he felt the board hasn’t been held accountable—the root of the communication issues, he said.

“Bottom line: create a culture of accountability and transparency on campus,” Ozimkowski said.

Fisher commented on the long-standing issues of ensuring oversight without compromising neutrality. Impartiality was one of Fisher’s main goals in appointing the members.

She cited past elections in which the board was overseen by SALP, but that practice was ended last year to prevent conflicts of interest.

There have also been issues with ASPSU student advisors running for positions and board members outright lobbying for certain candidates.

“I intentionally appointed people to the Elections Board that weren’t involved with the candidates; who were impartial. But with that comes inexperience,” Fisher said. “It’s kind of like a catch-22.”

The next debate for ASPSU presidential and vice-presidential candidates is currently scheduled to happen today from 3–5 p.m. in Parkway North, on the first floor of Smith Memorial Student Union.