On the first day of the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) 2020 election voting period, campus-wide controversy broke out over an electoral rule saying students who opted out of CUSA fees will not be able to vote.

“[S]tudents must be opted into the three CUSA fees in order to cast a ballot in the election,” reads a CUSA statement released Jan. 29 at 5 p.m. on the organization’s website.

The rule has been said to have originally passed at an emergency December CUSA council meeting held Dec. 5, even though the public minutes posted on the CUSA website of the emergency meeting have no mention of the rule.

The three CUSA fees are student life and success programs ($6.92), student opportunities and spaces ($7.30), and clubs and societies ($3.66), according to Carleton Central, which amount to a total cost of $17.88 for students.

These fees were created at the beginning of the 2019-20 academic school year when all Carleton clubs and societies needed to provide descriptions of their levy fees in light of the Student Choice Initiative (SCI).

In previous meetings with the Charlatan, Lily Akagbosu, CUSA president, said the opt-out rate for the three CUSA fees was about 15 per cent.

The 15 per cent opt-out rate means roughly 4,000 undergraduate Carleton students will not be able to vote in the CUSA election, according to the most recent admission statistics available on Carleton University’s website from 2018-19.

Given the voter turnout rate for last year’s CUSA election saw a 2.6 per cent decrease from the previous year—with only 7,783 votes cast—the loss of about 4,000 potential voters could have dramatic impacts on 2020 voter turnout.

Although the CUSA statement says students are able to opt back into the CUSA fees at the main CUSA office located at 401 University Centre until 12 p.m. on Jan. 30—the last day of the voting period—students and candidates are saying this messaging is being made public too late.

Matt Gagne, a candidate for the vice-president (finance) position, said although he has been aware of the voting rule since the December council meeting, he worries students were not properly informed.

“I’m not worried about people who are in the know about Carleton politics and stuff, they should know,” he said. “But to the average student, I just believe it wasn’t publicized enough.”

“Initially when the opt-out option was available, they should’ve immediately made it a very, very apparent part of their promotion about opting in that part of it is if you’re not opted in, you don’t have the right to vote in the next election,” Gagne said. “I think now students are feeling the pain of that.”

“If you’re opted into at least one out of three [fees], you have paid something to CUSA and for that reason, you should definitely have the right to vote,” he added.

In an effort to educate students about the opt-out voting rule, Claudia Calagoure-Perna, chief electoral officer for the 2020 CUSA election, said 2,500 bookmarks were created with a breakdown of ranked voting and how to become eligible to vote—including opting into all three CUSA fees—detailed on it.

Candidates were told to hand the bookmarks out to students during campaigning at an all-candidates meeting held the night before campaigning began on Jan. 21.

“That was what we decided to take a stance on to make the student body known to [the rule],” Calagoure-Perna said. “Just to do our best ability to go and get the word out just because we’re only able to reach so many people.”

She added a how-to-vote graphic is also posted on all of the elections office’s social media accounts, which she urged candidates to share on their own social media accounts earlier in the day on Jan. 29.

Despite the description on the bookmark, Mariam Furré, a candidate for the vice-president (internal) position, said it was not made clear to candidates the bookmarks were to inform students of the consequences of opting out.

“They said give it to people so they can understand the ranking system,” Furré said.

“I just feel like making people pay 18 dollars the day of the elections—the day of voting—is super last minute, first of all, and a lot of us poor people aren’t able to do that.” – Mariam Furré, candidate for vice-president (internal)

Mar Mohamed, Furré’s campaign manager, shared similar concerns, pointing out students will have to opt-in by noon to be able to vote, only giving them a few hours to cast their ballot.

“I definitely think it’s going to affect voter turnout,” Mohamed said. “They’re not extending the voting days to account for this mishap, and they’re also not extending office hours today [Jan. 28].”

Amid the confusion over the opt-out rule, Furré said she is worried about CUSA-student relations and possible backlash.

“I’m just scared there’s going to be a protest,” said Furré, adding that many students already distrust CUSA, an issue she’s brought up frequently throughout her campaign.

“Now that like they’re just finding out that they can’t vote and the people who have the most distrust [towards CUSA] are the people that opted out,” she said.

Furré isn’t the only person worried about potential protests.

Jason Evans, a public affairs student and United Nations club executive, said he has also heard student protests may occur in light of the opt-out rule.

“One of my friends is talking about organizing a protest at the CUSA committee afterwards if the slate just wins by a landslide,” Evans said. “I’ve heard from people willing to literally go and protest the events and everything that’s happening, and I think you can see quite a lot of pushback on social media for what’s been going on.”

A change.org petition was created online, which said the election was conducted in an “illegitimate fashion.” As of this writing, the petition has more than 130 signatures.

Evans also said he thinks if CUSA wants to be strict about only giving students paying all three fees the ability to vote, the organization should be more strict with who can use its services.

“One of the large issues I have with [the opt-out rule] is that … if you were to take that logic and apply it to everything that CUSA does on campus, with that logic, they should be carding people at Ollie’s and Rooster’s to check if they paid their CUSA funds,” he said.

“They’re not being very equal in how they’re applying this,” Evans added. “It seems to be very located into one area that seems to be disproportionately benefiting them.”

Evans, who said he communicates nearly every day with CUSA officials because of his club, said he opted out of one of the three CUSA fees earlier in the year, not knowing he would only receive the FundQi referendum question during the election instead of a ballot.

“It’s the most blatant voter suppression tactic I’ve ever seen from CUSA—and this is a government body that’s been critiqued for that for years now.” – Jason Evans, public affairs student

Although protest concerns exist, Calagoure-Perna said most students who came into the elections office about the rule were able to talk it out.

“We’ve definitely had a few questions,” she said of the student confusion over the rule. “Everyone’s been pretty good about it, but it’s definitely a little bit confusing.”

Mehdi Bouchentouf, a student who ran as a CUSA executive candidate in last year’s CUSA election, agrees with Calagoure-Perna that students are confused.

“I’m one of the more active members on campus,” Bouchentouf said.

“Considering that I didn’t know that like opting out meant that you wouldn’t have a chance to vote, I’m 100 per cent certain that the student body didn’t know.”

Bouchentouf added if the Students First slate gets all their candidates elected, he wouldn’t “recognize that as legitimate.”

“I think most students would follow that because it’s fundamentally unfair.”

In light of recent Ryerson University and University of Ottawa student union scandals, Bouchentouf added CUSA should be more transparent than ever.

“The onus falls on CUSA to make sure that they’re actively democratic.”

Lily Akagbosu and Jamie Laxton, current CUSA executives, did not respond to the Charlatan’s request for comment before the publishing date.

Featured image by Tim Austen.