When college student governments decide to abandon paper ballots in favor of Internet voting, they’re usually hoping to increase the ranks of students who participate. During its recent online election, the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Student Council appeared well on its way to doing just that: Less than halfway through the three-day process, about 15 percent of the institution’s over 40,000 eligible voters had already weighed in.
But a computer glitch that may have invalidated a number of ballots forced officials to postpone the election, and now some students are worried that turnout won’t be nearly as robust the second time around.
"It’s a mess-up, and I understand," one student told the Wisconsin State Journal. "But it’s hard to get students to vote once and now it’ll be even harder." (Wisconsin State Journal)
For more on online student-government elections, see an article from The Chronicle by Brock Read.
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