On Tuesday night, the House of Student Representatives passed a bill allowing candidates to run for up to two House representative positions during elections if they meet qualifications. Lizzy Caudill, co-author of the bill, said the bill closed loopholes in the Student Body Code.

While the House did well to close the loopholes, the new bill may not be the solution for those problems for at least a couple of reasons.

First, allowing students to run for two positions creates the possibility for wasted votes. Students running for two positions do not get to choose which position they will fill if they win both elections; they will be appointed to the position for which they win a higher percentage of votes. If students cast their votes with the expectation that the candidate will win one certain position and that candidate wins a different one, then those student votes were wasted.

Also, if a student were a double candidate 8212; for the College of Communication and AddRan College of Liberal Arts, for example 8212; some of the issues relating to each college could conflict with each other. Anyone running for office simply cannot run on two opposing platforms.

It is great to see students who want to be as involved as possible by running for multiple positions, but the bill seems to be more beneficial to the candidates’ aspirations than to the voice of student voters.

The House may want to consider sending the bill in referendum to the student body to be certain that voters would approve of this change as well.

Associate/opinion editor Marshall Doig for the editorial board.