In last week’s Student Association executive elections, less than 1,500 votes were cast. Last year, during Peoria-based Bradley University’s student senate executive elections, more than 2,100 students voted.

That is not a significant difference until you consider Bradley has a student population of about 6,000 students, while NIU has a population of about 25,000. Another significant difference is that last year Bradley instituted online voting and saw an increase in turnout by nearly 50 percent.

As the Star reported Wednesday, University Programming and Activities currently is looking into the possibility of online voting as a means to increase voter turnout. In doing so, they are facing a number of complex, yet manageable challenges said Bradley Student Senate Technology Chairman Jeff Link, who helped setup the system there.

“Voter turnout generally can decrease initially with the new change,” he said. “But strong and effective promotion and planning can curb those worries. Security concerns are also a very popular, important issue. You have to make sure that students have a secure login and that other students can’t figure it out, or that the area is secure from hacking.”

It’s not just the possibility of fraud that concerns Student Association President Kevin Miller. He believes that online voting would compromise accountability of candidates

“[Online voting] has been tossed about and bantered about,” he said. “I am not a real big fan of it. But I will say, it’s definitely something that we need to look at in the near future, whether it will work or not for our campus. I think it takes a lot of accountability away from the candidates.

Link said that at Bradley, candidates still campaigned hard and attended forums despite online elections, but he agreed that it’s different for every school.

“I think that implementing online voting is going to be a unique and probably inevitable experience for every school,” he said. “You just have to judge it as you go. Do you have enough computer labs, do students bring their own computers, do you have the resources to promote the election, do you have the policies set up to support the elections, the technical abilities and what not. It’s how you tackle the issues, big or small school, you have to know your school, and expect everything and anything. Apparently, online voting will also not cure voter apathy.

“I am all for online voting at NIU,” said Matt Pearson, a sophomore mechanical engineering major. “It would give me a whole other outlet to not vote with.”