When candidates running for Duke Student Government president or executive vice president start campaigning Wednesday, they will be running their campaigns “with less risk,” according to an August executive order.
In the past, the election of executive positions—president, executive vice president and four vice presidents—was held on one day, followed by the election of senators two weeks later. This year, however, students will elect the president and executive vice president March 30 and the vice presidents and senators April 15.
The change will “allow highly qualified candidates who run unsuccessful campaigns for president and [executive vice president] to run for a [vice president] position,” according to the executive order, which DSG President Awa Nur and her cabinet signed Aug. 25.
Nur, a senior, said the cabinet discussed these changes after her election last year. The change should also increase voter turnout for senator elections, which will be paired with vice presidential elections, she said.
“The [vice presidential] candidates have a vested interest in getting out the vote that day,” the executive order states. “We already have excellent turnout in freshman Senate as well as president elections… but Spring Senate election turnout lingers around 25 percent.”
Last Spring, voter turnout for executive positions was 38 percent, down from 40.5 percent the previous year.
DSG Executive Vice President Gregory Morrison, a junior who is running for DSG president, said he supports the change.
“I think that it’s a good change because it increases the flexibility of options because it keeps qualified people in DSG,” Morrison said.
Former DSG President Elliot Wolf, Trinity ’08 and a former Chronicle columnist, said the change will probably have a minor impact, but added that allowing candidates who lose races to run for vice presidential spots can be helpful.
“When I was elected there were a number of highly qualified people who didn’t win the executive vice president or vice president spots and I thought that was unfortunate enough that I actually appointed some of them to certain spots in DSG,” said Wolf. “When you have a lot of very qualified people, if the loser leaves the organization then that’s bad for the organization.”
Former DSG President Jordan Giordano, who was in office last year, said his cabinet discussed a similar change. He added that senior Chelsea Goldstein and junior Mike Lefevre, who were unsuccessful presidential candidates last year, would have made strong vice presidential candidates this year, if given the opportunity to run.
“Chelsea and Mike did a great job in their vice president positions and I was disappointed that both of them could not hold their positions, and hopefully this [executive order] will alleviate this,” said Giordano, Trinity ‘09 and Fuqua ‘10. He added that having a vice president serve two terms can be advantageous.
Wolf said the changes will not have a large impact on voter turnout for Senate elections. If anything, he said students may be less inclined to elect senators and vice presidents because students are mostly focused on the presidential election.
“That’s the most visible race. If students think that anything is going to come out of DSG they are going to concentrate their energy on the president,” Wolf said. “If you lump vice president elections with Senate elections you might end up with senatorial turnout, but I don’t think you will reach the executive turnout.”
Athletics and Campus Services senator Price Davidson, a sophomore and a candidate for executive vice president, said the change is good but it did not affect his decision to run.
“I do think that it encourages candidates to step out more,” said Davidson, who added that he thinks he will run for a vice president position if he is not elected executive vice president. “I obviously am in support of the changes because it opens up the option for qualified students to exhibit their persistence... if they happen to fall short on their first attempt.”
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