Council Election Opens With Fuller Field

This year's voting for Undergraduate Council representatives has begun, with more competitive races than last year.

This year, two Houses--Dudley and Cabot--fielded no candidates. All other Houses fielded more than three candidates for their available seats on the council. All first-year races were also contested. The council has fewer seats available than in past years due to a student referendum.

Last year, Dunster House fielded no candidates for the election. Four other Houses--Currier, Eliot, Leverett and Winthrop--fielded fewer than five candidates for their five or more spots.

Voting officially opened at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. It ends tomorrow at 11:59 p.m.

The plenitude of open slots in past years created little need for upperclass students to poster or consider platforms for their campaign.

But last year, students passed a referendum that slice the council's size by about half, making for a good deal more campaigning this year by both aspiring and incumbent representatives.

"This forces candidates to examine why they're running and the interests of the people they represent," said Kyle D. Hawkins '02, who serves on the council's Election Commission but is not a council member.

Though in previous years almost all campaigning took place in the Yard dorms, campaign strategies of several upperclass candidates have included good, old-fashioned door-to-door campaigning this year.

Luke R. Long '03 has been pounding the pavement in Adams House, shaking hands and trying to meet his prospective constituency.

His work seems especially urgent in light of the tight race this year. In Adams House, six candidates are running for three slots.

In last year's race, Long said, "there were two candidates for six slots."

For that reason, House residents aren't used to heavy campaigning, and haven't all been taking him seriously.

"People are laughing at the hard work I've put in," Long said.

Another distinguishing trait of this year's races is that they are almost exclusively male.

Of 49 candidates for the slots in the upperclass Houses, only seven are female.

"It bothers me," said Council President Fentrice D. Driskell '01.

"Last year we had an overwhelming majority of male council members," she said. So this year, "At introductory meetings, I made it a big part of my effort to tell women that this is something they can do."

Driskell said she isn't sure why the effort was unsuccessful.

"In the future, we may need to make a more concerted effort...to recruit more women," she said.

The races in the Yard are somewhat more balanced, with 12 women out of 36 candidates total.

Though many of the races have heated up, there are still pockets apathy still reigns supreme.

Cabot House, the College's largest House and home to current council Vice President John A. Burton '01, has zero people running for office.

Christiaan H. Highsmith '03, a Cabot resident, said he "didn't know when the elections were going to take place."

If no candidates run for the slots in a particular House, residents may still elect representatives by writing in names on the ballot.

But if a write-in candidate is elected and declines to serve, or if no voters write in a candidate, the House simply has no voice on the council.

The "ucvote" program, which allows students to cast their vote on the Harvard network via Telnet, cannot tally results in real time--votes can be counted only after the program times out tomorrow evening.

As a result, the commission does not know how individuals are faring in the election until minutes before they make the final results public.

Students can cast their votes by typing "ucvote" at the fas% prompt.