During last night’s ASSU Undergraduate Senate meeting, senators primarily focused on the recent election results and the transition to the newly elected Senate. Although the final election results will be approved at next week’s meeting, senators discussed the pros and cons of the election process.

Two significant changes were made in the way elections were run this year — the addition of the Sticker Campaign and the no-bathroom-flyering policy. The Sticker Campaign required that all flyers placed in public areas have an official ASSU Campaign sticker, limiting the total number of flyers each candidate or slate could post.

Election Commissioner Ryan Woessner ‘10 was pleased with the change.

“I thought the Sticker Campaign worked really well,” he said. “It kept campus clean. The no flyering in the bathrooms was good because we had a pretty high turnout at the events we held like Rock the Vote.”

Elections this year took on a new angle as candidates focused more on initiating direct contact with students.

“There was a shift in the way candidates went about their campaigning,” Woessner added. “Instead of worrying about a catchy slogan, they focused on their platform.”

Senators agreed that the entire election process ran more smoothly than it did last year. Although the number of graduate voters increased significantly by 19 percent, the number of undergraduate voters decreased by almost 8 percent. Woessner admitted that this decrease could partially be attributed to the stricter campaigning policies.

“Obviously, if you don’t have flyers in the bathrooms, I don’t think people will be inundated with flyers all the time,” Woessner said. “But it saved a lot of hassle for the Elections Commission, and I think candidates benefited from it because they were able to participate a lot more in events.”

One election glitch that the Senate is currently working to fix is ensuring that special fees group Basmati Raas receives its requested $11,000. The budget that was placed on the voting Web site incorrectly stated the total requested amount as $1,000, making the votes unconstitutional and invalidating them.

Senators discussed the possibility of funding Basmati Raas’ $11,000 with ASSU general fees. However, some senators worry that this may set an unwanted precedent.

“I just don’t want to set a precedent,” said Senator Luukas Ilves ‘09. “Whenever there is a technical problem with special fees, the automatic solution shouldn’t be to use the general fees budget.”

The Senate also discussed the transition period between the old and new senators. ASSU Senate Chair Priyanka Sharma ‘09 advised the new members to take full advantage of this period of time to make the beginning of their term run as smoothly as possible.

“We, the current Senate, are going to do everything we can to make the transition smooth, easy and fun for you guys,” Sharma told the incoming senators.