Approved by Senate Assembly - February 16, 2004
February 16, 2004
1. The Assembly Chair will preside over the Assembly during the election and exercise general oversight throughout the process. Two tellers will be selected at the meeting on the day of the election. If the tellers are not members of the Assembly, then at least one Assembly member shall be elected to monitor the counting of ballots.
2. In accordance with Regental Bylaw, RB Sec. 4.06, a SACUA nominating committee "shall be elected by the Senate Assembly [and be] composed of two outgoing members of SACUA and four outgoing members of the Assembly..."
3. At the Assembly meeting immediately prior to the election meeting, the nominating committee will provide the Assembly with a slate of eligible candidates for the positions requiring replacement.
4. The nominating committee will verify the eligibility of each candidate.
5. An Assembly member may also offer nominations from the floor of any Assembly meeting up to and including the election meeting. Members of the nominating committee will verify the eligibility of any candidates nominated from the floor as well. If it is not possible to determine eligibility, the Chair will postpone the election to the next subsequent Assembly meeting.
6. Statements and/or biographical sketches of each of the candidates will appear in the University Record at
an appropriate time before the election meeting. Traditionally, this
has been the week immediately before the election.
7. The Assembly Chair, on behalf of Senate Assembly, will either re-verify or accept the determination of the
nominating committee's verification of the candidates' eligibility.
8. At the beginning of the election meeting, the Assembly Chair will ask if there are any further nominations
from the floor. When satisfied that all nominations have been given,
the Chair will announce that nominations are closed. Ballots will not
be distributed until after nominations are closed.
9. All nominations however offered shall designate the candidate's unit affiliation, which shall normally be
the unit which elected the candidate to Senate Assembly. If there are
questions about unit affiliation (e.g., if the candidate has been elected to
Senate Assembly from two or more units), the unit affiliation shall be that
used for the candidate in the most recent Senate Assembly apportionment.
10. In advance of the election meeting, a ballot will be prepared that will list all candidates, their unit of affiliation, directions for voting, and a statement specifying any unit
representation limitation and/or term limitation considerations, if applicable.
11. If there are nominations from the floor at the election meeting, the election will be temporarily postponed until the new nominations are placed on the ballot at that same meeting, and
directions of voting amended, if appropriate.
12. All candidates may make oral statements
prior to the vote, including nominees from the floor.
13. Candidates are not required to be present at the time of the election.
14. Voting shall be by a ballot bearing the names of all candidates. Voters shall be instructed "Vote for at more
N", where N is the number of vacant seats on SACUA. Voters shall
signify their choices by marking the names of at most N candidates.
Voters are not required to mark their ballot if they so choose. Any
ballots that are marked for more than N candidates will be placed aside as
"illegal ballots" and not counted.
15. Tellers shall count the number of votes
for each candidate as marked on ballots submitted by voters. The
candidates with the highest vote counts will be elected to the open
positions in an ordered se1uence determined by descending vote totals.
In the case of a tie when there are not enough open positions available to
avoid a conflict, a tie-breaking election shall be conducted in the same
manner as the general election but with only the tied candidates included on
the ballot. All other election results shall stand.
16. In case the election sequence has filled the maximum number of seats on SACUA to which a unit is entitled (e.g., 3
for LSA, 2 for Medicine, 2 for Engineering), the candidate from the said
unit with the lower number of votes does not receive the seat on SACUA.
This seat is passed on to the candidate from another unit with the number of
votes closest to the candidate in question.
17.
After all valid ballots are counted, the Tellers shall read their report of the election results to the Assembly and
then submit their report to the Assembly Chair, who as he reads the results
again, declares the results for each office. Results shall become
effective immediately. After the election results are announced,
objections to the current implementation of these procedures will not be in
order except for an allegation of fraud or of simple factual error such as
counting error.
18. Notwithstanding the finality of election results specified above, an immediate request for a re-count of votes
already cast will be allowed.
19. Failure to adhere to these guidelines will not necessarily invalidate an otherwise valid election. The Assembly
Chair, SACUA, and the Assembly have the authority to use any appropriate
remedy.
20. A quorum only is needed to conduct a valid election.
21. The election meeting will occur prior to May 1 and the newly elected members of SACUA shall take office on May 1. Traditionally, the election meeting has been the March Assembly meeting.
22. The Assembly itself is the judge of all questions arising which are incidental to the voting or the counting of the votes. The tellers should refer to the Assembly for decision all questions on which there is any uncertainty.
23. These guidelines are effective immediately but not retroactively.