Graduate election will be held online

By Barbara Ortutay
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

In an attempt to boost historically low voter turnout, the
Graduate Students Association will hold its elections online this
year.

The elections ““ which will begin Thursday and continue
through next Wednesday ““ have been moved up to accommodate
law students, who normally take their finals during the time GSA
elections are held.

GSA President Martin Griffin said online elections are an
experiment to see if they can generate a higher voter turnout,
especially among students in the professional schools. The election
date was moved due to complaints from law students, who are on the
semester system, Griffin said.

Graduate students will be able to vote by logging on to their
My.UCLA Web site.

The only candidate for president is Charles Harless, who has
worked for GSA since 1999. Vice president external and vice
president internal ““ the two other elected positions ““
each have two candidates running.

According to his candidate statement, Harless hopes to improve
graduate student life by focusing on housing issues, improving
relationship between students and departments, and advocating for
more diversity among graduate students.

Emily Kwong and Alain Dang are independent candidates for vice
president internal and vice president external, respectively.

Along with Harless, Dorothy Kim and Thomas Johnson are also
running on a slate, simply known as Slate A. They are running for
VPI and VPE, respectively. Kim is this year’s VPI.

Currently there is one referendum on the ballot, but at least
one more might be added if it’s approved at tonight’s
GSA forum.

The referendum, which passed last year but failed to go into
effect due to low voter turnout, would increase the quarterly GSA
membership fee by $1.50.

Even if passed by a majority, GSA ballot referenda require a
minimum 10 percent voter turnout to take effect.

The fee hasn’t increased since the mid-1980s, according to
Griffin.

To see the candidates’ statements and other information
about the elections, log on to http://gsa.asucla.ucla.edu.