With ASSU elections set to begin at the start of spring quarter, student leaders have been working with the University to reform its election policies to provide better protection of free speech.

This year, the ASSU Elections Commission will not set policy on its own. Rather, its role will be to merely publicize and clarify the relevant University Residential Education, Computing and dorm-flyering policies, especially for the candidates, according to Elections Commissioner Troy Steinmetz, a sophomore.

With the changes, the ASSU hopes to strike a balance between creating an open forum for campaigning and protecting students from bad campaign practices. Last year, violation — including the use of senior and junior class mailing lists as endorsement tools — resulted in a special election after the results of the original election were overturned by the Undergraduate Senate.

Steinmetz said that the changes made over the past year will prevent certification battles in the senate and future special elections.

“You’re not going to see what happened last year,” he said.

For one thing, the ASSU Undergraduate Senate and Graduate Student Council no longer have veto power over the elections during the certification process. Steinmetz said that if there are any issues with this year’s election, they will have to be raised by students.

Steinmetz also said that the ASSU had been working with the Offices of Residential Education and Student Activities to clarify and in some cases tweak the University’s policies on public advertising and the use of e-mail lists for campaigning.

“The big change is going to be the idea that the ASSU doesn’t restrict free speech,” Steinmetz said.

The Constitutional Council cases brought last year in the wake of the election controversy revealed that some of the policies listed in the Campaign Practices Code may have violated the candidates’ first amendment rights.

“Basically, the Campaign Practices Code, since it has been continually ruled that the ASSU cannot directly enforce it due to free speech rights, will not be directly regulated by the ASSU this year,” said Senate Chair Chris Lin, a senior. The Campaign Practices Code is a set of guidelines about campaigning.

Steinmetz said that instead of telling candidates what they can and cannot do, the Elections Commission will recommend proper campaign behavior and leave it to the University and to individual students and dorms to decide what is acceptable.

For example, Steinmetz said that the ASSU will be making sure that candidates are informed of all the University’s Residential Computing policies so that they do not use computers improperly to campaign.

“I feel like you will see judicious use of e-mails during the week,” he said.

Steinmetz said that the Office of Student Activities would be giving the ASSU exclusive use of White Plaza the week before the election for campaigning purposes.

Neither the Office of Student Activities nor the Office of Residential Education could be reached for comment by press time.

To gauge the success of the reforms, Steinmetz said there will be an optional survey at the end of this year’s ballot asking students for feedback on the new system.

The survey could lead to a proposal for a constitutional amendment to the ASSU constitution on election procedures.

“If students express dissatisfaction, then there needs to be a constitutional amendment to allow greater regulation of campaign activities,” said sophomore Chris Nguyen, chair of the Senate Administration and Rules Committee.

Nguyen also said the ASSU will be using a Financial Disclosure Form to prevent campaign finance scandals. The new form will stress public disclosure of funding.

Last year, The Daily reported that the Black Student Union gave special-fees money to one of the slates in the ASSU executive campaign.

Of the new disclosure policy, Nguyen said, “At least students will be aware of which student groups certain candidates are beholden to.”