Proposed Constitutional Changes:

Hart Hall senator, sophomore Tristan Engh, proposed three changes to the Associated Students’ constitution.

The first change proposed would be to Bylaw III section VI, adding that if any ballots are found to be fraudulent, they would not be counted, Engh said. In this case, the legal ballot the student also cast would be discounted.

The second change Engh proposed would be to Bylaw III section IV subjugation 2, adding that any candidate cannot run unopposed. This was especially relevant during this spring 2013 election, where many senators ran unopposed, Engh said. If at the time the AS candidate applications are due and there is only one person running for an office, AS will open that position up to a hiring process, Engh said. This way, no one will run unopposed or have to campaign because AS will hire someone to fill the position, Engh said.

The third change Engh proposed was to Bylaw III section IV subjugation 6. It would benefit AS to allow for a margin of error in elections, Engh said. He proposed that senators either vote on a 5 percent, 3 percent or 1 percent margin of error. On this most recent election, a 5 percent margin of error would have accounted for 75 votes, while a 3 percent margin of error would have affected 45 votes. A 1 percent margin of error would have affected 15 votes.

Denied:

The senators voted to deny Engh’s proposal on behalf of the elections committee for the addition of a judicial branch to AS. The decision was to either choose to instate someone who was in AS already to interpret the constitution, even though that person may have a bias toward AS, or choosing someone outside of AS who may not know much about AS to interpret the constitution, according to AS president elect, junior Evan Tan. The senators need to know the constitution so that they can discern the constitutionality of their voting themselves, according to Emerson Hall senator, sophomore Evan McGee.