The Martlet

While other slates put paint brush to poster paper to begin their campaign for spots on the next UVic Student Society board, the YES campaign took a different approach.

The four-person slate, which seeks only to occupy the board’s paid executive positions, has decided to run a paper-free campaign. The group says it demonstrates a readiness to advocate for change today, rather than waiting for their terms in office to start.

Justine Lavine, the director of finance candidate for YES (which the group says isn’t an acronym but an attitude), said that while the team will be at a disadvantage this year because students won’t see their names as often, if they are elected, they’ll prove that paper-free campaigning works. They’ll be using that base to ban paper from future campaigns.

“If nobody is using paper, it levels the playing field so people that want to be environmentally friendly aren’t at a disadvantage,” Lavine explained.

Electoral policy allocates each candidate a maximum campaign budget of $50 to ZAP copy centre on campus and $25 to spend elsewhere, which YES says makes moving away from paper tough.

They did manage to use some of their ZAP fund to pay for a single laminated poster that lists all their candidates. They’ll move this poster to different locations on campus.

“It’s better than paper, because we don’t have to replace it every time it rains and we won’t toss it out after the campaign,” said José Barrios who is running for director of services.

They each put their $25 of flexible funds towards buying several cases of green apples from a local farm, which their finance candidate managed to find a good deal on. The team will write their name with marker — don’t worry, they used the kid’s brand of non-toxic markers — and hand out the fruit in place of leaflets.

“There is a lot of positive symbolism with an apple,” said Mehak Mehra, the director of academics candidate. “It says choice and growth and it’s a green apple like environmentalism. Those are all things we think we represent.”

More than anything, Barrios said he hopes the campaign will show their innovative thinking, which he says students should look for in their elected representatives.

Beyond just a paper-free campaign, the team would like to see elections held online to eliminate paper ballots. The UVic Board of Governors is currently elected by an online vote. The University of Ottawa switched to online voting for their student society elections this year and saw voter turnout jump from 12 per cent to 27 per cent of the student body.

“Anything we can do to make [the UVSS] more accessible to students, that’s a good thing,” said Barrios.

Even if they don’t make it on the board, YES has a backup plan for changing future elections. While they’re campaigning, the team will collect signatures on a petition from students who would like to see future campaigns be done without paper and with voting online.