Low voter turnout kills all four referenda

NEC drops all charges of fair practice violations The movement for constitutional reform of the University's student government died last night with the Nominations and Elections Committee's announcement that only 13.6 percent of eligible voters turned out for Tuesday and Wednesday's elections. In order for any referendum to be binding, at least 20 percent of the University's full-time undergraduate population must vote. But neither the A1 nor the A2 constitution proposal received a majority vote from the students who did turn up at the polls, meaning that neither constitution would have been adopted regardless of voter turnout. Two amendments to the current Undergraduate Assembly constitution failed as well, both because of the low voter turnout and a lack of support from voters. As a result, UA elections will not be carried out on a geographic basis and the Social Planning and Events Committee will not gain autonomy from the UA. The election results were announced at last night's NEC Fair Practices Code hearing which began with the NEC's decision to press charges against several A1 supporters -- after College junior Michael Hartman, who originally filed similar charges, failed to attend the meeting. But in the end, NEC Chairperson of Elections Roy Fu, a College senior, said the NEC had decided that none of the charges biased the election in any way. As a result, all the referenda were still considered valid. According to Fu, out of 8,605 full-time undergraduate students, only 1,171 voted on the referenda -- a turnout of only 13.6 percent. This is an even lower figure than the turnout in last year's referendum on the University of Pennsylvania Emergency Medical Service. But even if 20 percent of students had voted, every proposal on the ballot was short of a majority of those who voted. A1 received only 36.6 percent of the vote on the A referendum. More students voted for "neither" (35.5 percent) than for A2 (28 percent). In the B referendum, which would have established geographic voting districts, only 29.5 percent of voters checked "yes" on their ballots. The C referendum, which would increase SPEC's standing relative to other branches of student government, garnered 47.3 percent of the vote. Student leaders had varied opinions on the results of the election. "I'm disappointed that more people didn't participate in the election," Dan Schorr, co-author of the A1 proposal and a College senior, said. "Apathy was definitely one factor." UA Chairperson and Wharton junior Dan Debicella, who did not seek re-election to the body, said he saw the results as an affirmation of the current system of government. "The low voter turnout was totally a result of people seeing that A1 was a poor constitution," he said. "I like to think that this is an affirmation of the job that this UA has done over the past year. People were saying that this UA has made a difference by doing student advocacy."