Only a few days remain in the campaign for the Student Confederation, AU's student government. Candidates are busy jockeying for votes and key endorsements as the campaign nears its end. Some of the last key announcements have been made as the presidential candidates warm up for the annual ATV debate and the official times for voting have been released.
Debate set for ATV Thursday
The annual presidential debate on ATV, AU's student television station, will take place Thursday night and will feature a change of venues and formats this year as SC Secretary Karen Fischer has taken over the logistics of the face-off. The five candidates will be asked questions by a moderator from ATV, a media panel with representatives from The Eagle and BenLadner.com, and the studio audience, Fischer said.
In order to accommodate an audience, the venue has been changed to the Media Production Center across from the Admissions Welcome Center in Centennial Hall. The debate will allow each candidate to answer four blanket questions from the moderator, and then the panel will ask specific questions of each candidate. The audience will then be able to chip in with its questions toward the end of the debate.
Each candidate will be given nine tickets to distribute to supporters, Fischer said. Candidates are to arrive at 9:40 p.m. and the audience will be allowed in at 9:50 p.m. All audience members and candidates must be in their seats by 10:05 p.m. and the debate will begin at 10:15 p.m., Fischer said. ATV is unsure whether the debate will run live, according to Brad Burns, ATV news director.
ATV is running the operations of the debate, since Fischer is unable to take part due to her work for the campaign of candidate Polson Kanneth. The debate will show throughout the weekend as voting begins, Burns said.
Election times announced
The final times for this weekends elections were released via the SC Web site, www.studentconfederation.org. Kyle Harding, chair of the Board of Elections, previously told The Eagle that the schedule would follow the hours of TDR to assure voter turnout.
Voting will begin on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Mary Graydon Center 120 and close for the night at 7 p.m. It will open again from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. Monday, March 1, the voting will open at 9 a.m. and continue until 7 p.m. On Tuesday, students will be able to vote from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The reason for the early close on Tuesday is to allow the votes to be counted and announced Tuesday night, Harding previously said.
If no candidate in an election receives at least 40 percent of the vote, the race will go to a runoff on March 4, according to the regulations of the board. This year, a runoff will be held anyway due to two proposed constitutional amendments. Times will be announced shortly.
