While online voting for Student Government elections was shot down by the UF Supreme Court, students at Florida State University will vote online for the first time Feb. 27.
UF's court announced at a Student Senate meeting Tuesday night that a constitutional amendment allowing online voting is unconstitutional and would hinder SG's ability to prevent voter coercion.
The student group Students for Online Voting submitted a petition signed by about 10 percent of the student body to place an amendment on the spring elections ballot that would allow online voting in elections.
FSU Student Government Association's Sen. Bobby Seifter said voter privacy was also a concern when online voting was proposed in January.
Seifter said before the bill was passed 24-6, senators had a three-hour debate on the risks of a political party or student organization soliciting votes. Senators concluded any possible violations to voter secrecy were already listed as illegal in FSU's statutes, he said.
To help prevent large-scale forced voting, he said no more than four people can vote on one computer through Blackboard Learning System, and it is up to FSU students to report anyone trying to violate voter secrecy.
He said using this system is "perfectly safe and secure" because it is the same system FSU students visit every day to check grades, register for classes and pay fees.
Joe O'Shea, FSU Student Body president, said he hopes it will increase voter turnout - usually about 2 percent - to about 12 percent. SGA will keep online voting as an option along with their usual six voting booths on campus.
He said the benefits outweigh the possible risks.
"There's always the possibility that someone could be coerced into voting whether they're going into the voting booth or online," he said. "I mean, there's always really a risk, but people are free to vote as they wish."
UF Student Senate President Kevin Reilly, who is also the Gator Party's candidate for Student Body president, said he respected the UF court's decision on the amendment and declined to comment on online voting.
The UF court's written decision states the online voting amendment violates the U.S. Constitution's guaranteed right to voter secrecy by preventing SG's ability to supervise.
To have certified the amendment, the court would have needed to overturn a previous court's ruling of the amendment's unconstitutionality in 2006, which they didn't find "erroneous" enough to do so, the court's written decision stated.
John Campbell, an associate justice of the court, was the only one to dissent from the court's opinion.
Campbell said the amendment should have been certified by the court because it passed the requirements in the Student Body constitution and statutes.
