Elections

In view of the small percentage of students who have exercised their right to vote in the past (33 per cent, last year) wider publicity should be given to this election by sending a circular to every member of the Association stating the dates of the election and the AGM and urging him to, vote. This could be done at the expense of the Association.

Secondly that a proper polling booth with facilities for secret voting be provided e.g. in the Lower Gym, and that the voter be required to record his vote at the same time as he receives the list, as in a Civil election. This would put an end to the haphazard way in which the elections have been conducted in the past, with half of the students grabbing a voting paper and rushing over to the photographs of the candidates to record their votes.

I hope that the Exec, will see fit to take these points into consideration.

Cato.

(The first suggestion on the face of it may seem good, but the plain point is that people don't refrain from voting because they don't know the voting is on, but because they aren't interested; and we question whether spending £10 on stamps, plus that money it would cost to buy cyclostyling paper (at a fantastic price) and envelopes, together with the time it would take to get well over 2000 of these sent out, would justify the result. It' might have some use if the paper were punched before hand with a little hole in the top comer; people would then find some use for it.

The second also is good, except that having the polling booth in the Gym would probably lower the voting by—we'll say—50 per cent. We agree on the photo finish voting; it's iniquitous, but mostly because the final Exec, (especially the women) tend to be chosen for shapeliness rather than ability.—Ed.

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