For the next few days around The University of Memphis campus, the Student Government elections are going on.
Instead of the paper ballots that have been used in the past, technology has caught up with SGA elections. Over the last few years, there has been online voting for the elections through a special Web site that the SGA election commission has set up.
"I think electronic voting is easier," said Atira Sherrod, sophomore pre-veterinary major. "Because you can log on anytime. Plus paper ballots are kind of messy because it takes a while to add them all up."
Roslyn Weiss, senior environmental studies major, said she agrees with the idea of online voting.
"I think it's easier," she said. "Because you can do it anywhere. But there are going to be limitations as well."
While online voting is a good idea to most, some would still like to have a place on campus where students could vote.
"I like online voting," said Ross Daniel, computer engineering major. "A lot of people are online already. But I also think there needs to be a quick place to vote on campus as well."
The main idea of the SGA elections is to elect the new president, vice-president and the senators. This time there is also the issue of using environmentally friendly power from the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The Environmental Action Club, who is behind the campaign for the switch in power, has set up tents in the Alumni Mall and is still campaigning.
Joy Ross, a junior biology and psychology double major, said that when a student comes up to their table, they tell them where to go vote.
"We say that you can vote on the SGA Web site and we give them a flyer with the address on it that we have been passing out," she said. "Also there is a link on our club Web site to the SGA elections as well."
When going to the SGA election Web site, students will be asked for their Memphis e-mail addresses and passwords to log in. Once they are logged into the system, students will be asked to vote for an environmental fee that would be used to purchase clean energy from TVA, as well as for the SGA president and vice-president. Then they vote for senators from their college as well as senators-at-large.
The election results will also be posted on the Web site once they are finalized.
Even though the technology behind the elections is nice, some feel that a back up plan needs to be in place if the Web site were to go down.
"I've had no trouble logging in," Sherrod said. "But paper ballots for a backup would be a good idea."
