The Assembly and the Senate passed a joint bill last week that will ease the financial burden for students who want to run for ASUU office in the upcoming ASUU elections.
The bill will cover half of the cost of campaigning for each individual candidate in the upcoming election. The funding must be used to cover the candidates’ expenses for apparel and print advertising. This is an increase from 10 percent reimbursement for each party last year. Last year’s candidates had to produce their own funding to be able to run.
The goal of the bill is to have more students run for office and to give the opportunity to students who do not have the money to spend on funding.
“I think that providing funding for the essentials for campaigning will make participating in elections more financially feasible,” said Taylor Thompson, the ASUU Elections registrar.
The bill received $15,000 from ASUU, which is enough to cover six attorney general candidates, six full ticket parties with each party consisting of 51 Assembly representative candidates, 17 senate candidates, one senior class presidential candidate, one vice presidential candidate and one presidential candidate. It is unlikely that six full parties will file to run. In this case, the excess funding will be available to candidates running as independents.
“It is highly unlikely that this many students will all file, but I would love to be proved wrong,” Thompson said.
Any remaining funds will be put back into the general reserve for the following school year.
Thompson said the bill will also help get students involved who would not have been able to run in years past because of the financial toll campaigning bares.
ASUU president Sam Ortiz agreed with Thompson about the bills increasing accessibility to students and improving the election process by making money “less of an issue.”
“Having this resource will provide for a more inclusive and diverse process, which are two of the core values of our administration,” Ortiz said.
Making ASUU more inclusive is one of the major platforms for the current ASUU executive branch.
The bill is also intended to create a more fair election since Thompson will be able to regulate when the apparel and printing items are distributed to those running for office. Candidates will have the option to spend more money from their own fundraising efforts to buy more than the funding given to them from the bill, until they hit the cap amount, which varies depending on the position the candidate is running for.
Thompson will be hosting two information sessions, on Oct. 9 at 6 p.m. and Oct. 10 at 1 p.m. for students interested in running for ASUU office.