NEC plans to double in size this year

The Nominations and Elections Committee will begin accepting applications from undergraduates interested in joining the NEC this week, NEC officers said yesterday. NEC Chairperson Melanie Brownrout said she wants to double the size of the committee, which currently has 13 members. The NEC is the body of student government responsible for running undergraduate and Undergraduate Assembly elections and for nominating undergraduates to Trustee, President, Provost and University Council committees. "[The NEC] is a way to be centrally involved in life at Penn," said Brownrout. "It's not an organization at Penn, it's an organization about Penn." Brownrout said that the NEC is "totally unbiased and completely unpolitical" and that part of the reason that the NEC is important to the University is because it provides fair student government elections. She said the NEC provides "good locations and adequate advertising" for elections, but that it is the candidates' responsibility to make students vote. Last spring, the NEC began using PennCard scanners at voting booths to improve efficiency. Four polling sites were operated simultaneously, rather than only one as in the past. It was also the first year that photos were included with UA candidates' statements in The Daily Pennsylvanian. According to NEC Elections Chairperson Michael Monson, voter turnout last year increased 100 percent over the previous year. "I think we hit bottom a couple of years ago [and we're] now on an upward turn," he said. Brownrout said there is "a lot of apathy about student government because many processes are slow to come. [The] best input is to get students out there [involved]." Monson said that PennCards will be used again during this year's elections, as will exit polls questioning how voters heard about the elections. Elections for eight freshmen UA members and two Wharton representatives will be held early next month.