Tuesday’s Student Senate meeting got heated during a discussion of online voting but ended smoothly with the first presentation of the amended activity and service fee budget.
A committee on election code reform discussed the proposal last week at its meeting and is due to vote on it today.
Several people, including former Sen. Carly Wilson, spoke in favor of online voting.
District D Sen. Helie Dharia said it can be hard for off-campus residents to find time and transportation to come to UF to vote.
She added that the bill doesn’t guarantee implementation or voting from phones — it only makes it theoretically possible.
“There are absolutely issues with the current voting system, but it’s our job as senators to work with the Supervisor of Elections and IT to fix these issues,” she said during public debate. “Denying the option of online voting means you don’t care what your constituents have to say,” she said.
Later in the meeting, Budget and Appropriations Chairman Joseph Michaels briefly presented amendments to the Fiscal Year 2013-2014 Activity and Service Fee budget, which pending the Senate’s approval, will take effect July 1.
The amended budget totals $18,992,300.
The changes include a high ropes course at Lake Wauburg and a 7.8 percent increase in the budgets for student organizations.
Michaels said the first reading of the budget will come next week, at which time senators will likely have an in-depth discussion.
Contact Julia Glum at jglum@alligator.org.
