…if you know what we mean.
PARTY’S OFF, EVERYBODY GO HOME.

After $60,000 from Arts alone (and that uneven funding is a whole ‘nother story) spent on booze, booze, and Said the Whale, UBC VOTES is ready to announce the results of their efforts.   Er, kind of.  See, the longer elections go on, the clearer it’s becoming that this election is bound to reinforce the status quo.  Let’s look at some of the goals we had going into this.  Was there an upturn in student involvement?
Well, according to Sir SUS (EA Lougheed)… no.  (But there’s so much else to celebrate!)

Oh. Well. Was there a new sense of excitement surrounding constituency politics?
…um, well, Eleven’Eleven” said some really nice things.  But most students still have a predictable reaction:

I see. How about we just find out who won, then?—ah, but as it turns out, we won’t be getting that either.

The registrar’s office has, apparently, bucked at the notion of having to provide a list of student numbers of online voters on Friday.  EAs may protest, but to no avail—the registrars have deadlines, too, and they’re not giving it up until after the weekend.  This means that the paper ballots cast can’t be counted (because double votes can’t be eliminated) until Monday.  Meanwhile, “partial results” (aka web ballots + Epic Math) will be announced tonight, but we’re assuming that the number of paper ballots (est. 25% of those cast)—and, thus, the margin of error—will still be rather high.

So what went wrong?  Well, for one thing, this whole UBCVOTES thing—cool as it is—was rather last-minute.  Hopefully next year’s committee, should they decide to keep the partnership alive, will start planning earlier & make use of now-existing infrastructure.

Secondly, events (& voting) were heavily promoted online, but given the nature of the hack facebook community (so insular, NASA’s using it to keep astronauts warm! ba-dump-ching), this may not have been the best strategy.  Perhaps, next year, a better physical presence? We hear the SUB is good for that.

Thirdly, the elections committee was forced to use WebVote at the last minute, rather than the hackable AMS Elections voting system, although, again, the availability of (alternative) paper balloting was limited at best.  In conjunction with this, we’d strongly—strongly—recommend a more comprehensive volunteers program, possibly with a talented, dedicated volunteers coordinator.

On a positive note, what went right?  Well, we’re totally impressed by the dedication of the entire elections committee.  Lots of love for former Confidentialite Taylor Loren, whose voice was apparent in a lot of the official emails we got (even though they were e-signed by the EAs) and who was a vivacious and visible presence throughout the events/voting process, from tweets to butts in seats.  The events were expensive, yes, and not too effective, but they were way way bomb.com.  MoA is a kick-ass venue, y’all.  Everyone who went to the parties had a lot of fun (and there’s photographic evidence if you know where to look).  Drink tickets got handed out like fuckin’ confetti.  And hey, pancakes!

But we’re still mulling over one question: will all these sexy parties be enough to prevent the largest candidate case of blue balls, like, ever??