Union Referendum to Reach Minimum Quorate Votes

The Union failed to gain the necessary minimum votes in the ‘You Count Referendum’, which took place on the 24th November in the Hive, to ensure that the votes would be binding. 

The ‘You Count Referendum’ gave students four proposals, which they could either vote for, against or abstain from, with the intention of helping to shape forthcoming Union policy. These proposals included limiting the number of copies of the Daily Mail on sale, a boycott of Coca-Cola, or building a multi-storey car park, all of which were voted against.

The most popular by far was the proposal to stock East Anglian grown fruit and vegetables where available, which received 369 votes in its favour.

Students were given the option of casting their vote either in the traditional manner via the ballot box or via online voting, although to do this students needed to register beforehand and had to explain why they would be unable to be attend the vote on campus.  

However under regulations the minimum the Union needed to make the vote binding was 500 but since the turnout was low, with only 459 people voting, it did not achieve this task.

In explaining the low turnout the Students’ Union Communication Officer, Natasha Barnes, pointed out that “no campaign convenor applied for election expenses and so it can only be assumed that no official campaigning was done. In most elections you have to rely, at least to some extent, on campaigners to spread the word about the vote. As there was no campaigning I think this also contributed to the relatively small amount of votes.”

Many have expressed surprise that a referendum took place last week. Ms. Barnes went on to say that “We have had referenda in the past which haven’t reached quorum and so this is not out of the ordinary. However, it is obviously not a desirable situation.”

In future referendums it is intended that online voting will become more established and widely-used so that all students, whether on campus or not, will be able to vote online to boost the turnout. 

Gareth Coventry