The Election Committee that is in charge of the Associated Students Inc. (ASI) elections coming up this quarter oversaw changes to this year’s election.

The three member committee headed by Committee Chair Mark Weisbecker had a meeting Monday where they discussed and voted on pushing the application deadline for candidates attempting to run in this year’s election.

The original deadline was Monday but the committee discussed rather it was fair to students who may have wanted to run because due to complications the committee was not able to put our signs and posters until Friday.

“We had all these big things we wanted to do but we ran into a few roadblocks,” said Weisbecker “I actually had to go around the university with the facilities and walk with him and he put spray paint on the ground saying this is where you can put a sign.”

The committee ended up voting in favor of extending the deadline as 10 students attended the meeting where eight were in favor of the extension while two were against it.

“I felt it would be unfair for us to put signs on the board last Friday saying run for office, the deadline is Monday,” Weisbecker explained, “I felt we hadn’t done our due diligence with getting the word out to people to come and run for elections.”

According to Weisbecker, valid points were brought up by those opposed to the extension, valid enough to where the committee had to consider if the change was necessary.

“I was really surprised because when I went to the meeting I thought there was no question we messed up,” said Weisbecker.

“After getting there and suddenly there are 10 students,” explained Weisbecker, “some of them had really good points.”

Among some of the reasons brought to the committee students felt they wanted students who were engaged and aware of these kind of deadlines running for student government positions on campus.

While the extension of the deadline was discussed at the meeting Weisbecker also discussed changes being made to the way the ballots will be presented.

According to Weisbecker, slates were presented on past ballots next to candidates’ names and in this year’s election the slates will be eliminated from the ballot.

“Slates are still allowed this year,” said Weisbecker. “The big change is slates will not be annotated on the ballot.”

By making it a more “democratic” process with the elimination of slates on the ballot, Weisbecker believes students who run as independents stand a better chance because students will know their name and not just their slate.

“I really wanted each candidate to stand on their own,” said Weisbecker. “And if they win it’s because their message was the best, not because they were friends with someone who got them on the slate.”

As Marguerite Hinrichs, director of Student Life and Leadership, stated they wanted students to work for and earn their position on the board.

At the most recent ASI Board of Directors meeting there was an amendment to add an Emergency Action Item to reverse the Elections Committee’s proposal to ban slates from participating in the ASI Election.

The amendment failed and Randy Saffold, executive director of ASI, explained to the directors during the meeting that he does not believe the board can reverse any decision made operationally by the Elections Committee as it works independently of the ASI board.

Weisbecker explained they wanted to make the elections more fair and more about a competition.

“In the end, competition is better,” said Weisbecker. “If we can get more people to run well have more competition and I think that will make for a better election and better campaign.”