Editorial: USAC should loosen Election Code restrictions on online campaigning

The first signs of an impending student government election are the high-resolution photos of candidates accompanied by long-winded captions on social media.

However, these monologues don’t explicitly state that the people posting them are actually running in the election. In reality, candidates are skirting around the Election Code, which bans online campaigning until the fourth week of spring quarter.

This charade has to end. By adapting years-old policies to the age of social media, the student government is equating the unavoidable plastering of paper campaign materials with individual posts that can be hidden or blocked online.

As such, the Undergraduate Students Association Council should amend its Election Code to lift the moratorium on social media campaigning for candidates.

The result of such a policy change could lead to more annoyance for the average student, but at the very least candidates will be more upfront about their motivations for filling our computer screens with essays and inane autobiographies.

While banning on-campus and in-person campaigning before a certain date is as necessary as it is appreciated, the rules against online campaigning don’t spare the students from much. If anything, loosening the rules will make it easier for students to identify who’s running in the election.

That being said, the rule change shouldn’t be without its limits. Soliciting votes through private messages before Week 4 should still elicit an Election Board sanction, as those are specifically targeted at individuals who may not wish to participate and are harder to avoid than a general post in one’s newsfeed. Of course, there’s no surefire way of determining what does and does not constitute campaigning, but it should be up to the Election Board’s discretion when it receives complaints of allegedly illicit online campaigning in the form of private messages.

Last year, this board took the position that early online campaigning must be punished more stringently. However, it’s become apparent now that candidates will always be one step ahead when it comes to using social media; it’s time to modernize the Election Code to fit today’s standards.

Online speech is nearly impossible to monitor in any adequate way, allowing for USAC candidates to exploit and make a mockery of the Election Code. Everyone knows what they’re doing and everyone knows that the Election Board is powerless to do anything about it. Ending the ban can end the annual charade.

USAC needs to amend an outdated and ineffectual rule. Even if it leads to more conspicuous self-advertisement, candidates will at the very least be upfront about their motivations.