By Mick Sweetman
Managing Editor
RUN GBC logo, courtesy of the Student Association of George Brown College
On March 7, Evan Murray, the chief returning officer for the Student Association (SA) election, released a public statement outlining the reasons that he rejected a request from students for a polling location for Arts and Design students at the School of Design building at 230 Richmond St. East.
According to Yassamin Yassini, a candidate for the SA Arts and Design Rep., 125 students signed a petition asking that a polling station be set up in the School of Design building for the SA election.
In the statement, Murray cites low voter turnout in previous elections that there has been a polling station there and the fact that the main campus at 200 King St. E. is between the 230 Richmond building and the 341 King St. East building.
Murray also raises the possibility of election fraud, “Because we are not given the resources to have electronic voting, we use only printed paper lists. It is therefore not possible to have multiple simultaneous polling stations per Educational Centre per campus in order to ensure that a student’s name will appear on only one list and they do not vote twice.”
Murray says due to the need to ensure people don’t vote twice opening a new polling location for Arts and Design students at this stage of the election would result in shutting down voting for Arts and Design students at the main St. James campus, “potentially disenfranchising Arts and Design students who show up to vote based on the advertising already done.”
Arts and Design students can vote in the following locations:
Fashion and Performing Arts (F102, F105, F110, F111, F112, F113, F114, F402, P101, P102, P103): Second Floor Cafeteria, Casa Loma, 146 Kendal Ave.
Design (G102, G108, G109, G401, G402, G405, G414): Kings Lounge, St. James campus, 200 King St. East.
Performing Arts (P100, R102): Yonge Centre Mobile Poll
Voting is Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Friday from 10 a.m to 4 p.m.
