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Every spring quarter it happens again. We are bombarded with a sea of red and blue shirts asking us to take one of their flyers in hopes of attaining the highest student positions in the land. However, the election process for the Undergraduate Students Association Council has and continues to be a sham.

The USAC election process has never given students enough time nor provided enough avenues for candidates to truly express their concerns about this school. The notion that the 32 candidates this year can adequately tell the university their visions for their future offices in the matter of a week is ludicrous. With no scheduled debates and no time, these candidates run around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to convince students (who are not likely to know what USAC stands for) to vote for them. It has made elections into a free-for-all circus incapable of meeting the needs of the student body.

With this faulty process has come a propaganda campaign that overshadows the issues. It should not matter whose signboard is bigger, who used what theme on their flyers or whose shirt design is the best. Issues, not slate names, should be made the top priority. The current elections system allows candidates to put their platforms on the back burner and bring short-lived advertising campaigns to the forefront. Over the past two years candidates have only killed more trees through handouts instead of trying to truly educating people.

The situation gets worse year after year. At least in national politics candidates can discuss their platforms. However, this year there will not even be a debate for students interested in learning more about the candidates. Instead we have glossy flyers of students, who, assuming they have enough money, can buy their way into offices through cheap tactics alone. The system has become a virtual popularity contest of winners and losers who, because of divisive politics, worry more about future funding for allies than anything else.

Although a nice try, online voting won’t help this already corrupted system. The number of voters may increase, but the true reason students don’t vote isn’t because of a lack of convenience. In fact, online voting can only make matters worse. Those who want prospective funding can now hold parties to which they’ll invite their entire clubs, organizations, fraternities and sororities. Then, the partygoers can take a minute to vote for whomever they are asked. Making voting more convenient is only a band-aid remedy to a major problem.

Mistakes from the past have shown that UCLA needs election reform more than Florida ever did. It is concerning that only three years ago, a girl having only been at UCLA for two quarters, was elected USAC president, thus representing the biggest UC in the state.

It must shock even the most conservative students that our current student body president, David Dahle, made a Nixon-esque list considering half the campus enemies – particularly students of color. Manipulation should not be the key to any president’s agenda

The Election Board needs to re-evaluate their system. At some point, caps on spending will have to be readily enforced and old-fashioned debates will have to be reinstated so that students can view, in plain light, their future representatives. There is definitely a need for more space to campaign so that there can be more forums, more discussion and especially more time for candidates to adequately express their true beliefs. We need to dismantle slates and begin from scratch with individuals, not political parties, expressing how they will contribute to the campus environment.

Before you vote today, ask the people running what principles they truly stand on. Do not just look at a face and recklessly cast your vote. Ask what these candidates really want to give you, what they will do about the increase in student fees, and their goals for their offices.

This is not the race for homecoming king and prom queen; it is one that will determine the future of students on this campus. Care for a minute, and you might be surprised at the outcome.

Smith is a fourth-year political science student. E-mail him at rsmith@media.ucla.edu.