![[One-sentence description of what this media is: "A photo of a vaccine site on USC campus" or "Gif of dancing banana". Important for accessibility/people who use screen readers.]](https://uscannenberg-uscannenberg-prod.web.arc-cdn.net/resizer/v2/KXKFN7QP7BHSVEMIR6ZVQLN7JA.JPG?smart=true&auth=878e984cefdc8e628df627422a5b3a4d1b8acae37aefa75927eafa937f2a0787&width=4032&height=2268)
Undergraduate Student Government elections for the 2024-2025 school year are in full swing on USC’s campus. Students can cast their vote in the upcoming week in support of their electoral candidates. USG’s ballot will be both online and in-person, featuring a new change that includes a ranked-choice format. Students will be able to vote for a new USG president and vice president duo, as well as new senatorial candidates.
Voting will begin this Tuesday and last until midnight Friday.
The ballots for the Presidential elections will be in ranked-choice format. This allows voters to list their first-choice option, second-choice option and so on.
This change was petitioned by the Chief Justice, Nivea Krishnan.
Krishnan: So the benefit with rank choice voting is that you actually get someone winning that gets the majority of the votes based on the way that rank choice voting is tabulated.
While voting numbers have trended low in previous years, Chief Justice Krishnan believes students should get their moneys worth for this election.
Krishnan: The number that they need to remember it’s $64. That is the amount from their tuition that they paid to the school that goes to funding student government. So regardless of your opinions on USG, the reality is you’re paying for us to do this. That means that you should take a vested interest in ensuring that the people you elect are people that are going to be representing your interests and what you want to see at school.
Students can choose to vote in person at polling places on campus or online through USG’s election platform. USG will update its website with an election form when polls open.
Online voting with be available at all times of the day when the polls open. But, students can only vote in person at the polling places from 11:00 am until 4:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
If students choose to vote in person, they can cast their vote at one of the booths on campus. The locations include Tommy Trojan, Alumni Park, Pardee Lawn, Leavey Library and SEIP Center.
During voting week, there will be three vendors available Tuesday through Friday to award those who participate in the USG election.
Once students submit their ballot, they can screenshot their voting confirmation to earn a free meal ticket for the day’s designated vendor.
On Tuesday, the vendor will be Fluff Ice, on Wednesday it will be Porto’s and on Thursday it will be Dazzling Donuts.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Becca Speier.
Correction: A previous version of this story said that the new ranked choice voting system was used for both the presidential and senate races. Only the presidential election used ranked choice voting, while the senate race remained a plurality-based system.