By putting the ballot online this year, the Student Association is taking another step to combat the historically low voter turnout for its elections.

The ballot will be available online March 20 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. through a link sent to students’ B-mail accounts.

Teddy Gyamfi, the chair of the Elections Committee, hopes that this will lead to an all-time high in voter turnout.

“On average, about ten percent of undergraduate student vote,” he said. “This year I truly believe a higher percentage will vote.”

Gyamfi, a senior majoring in Africana studies, said the switch comes with several advantages.

“One of the advantages is the reduction of poll sitters and paper ballots,” he said. “It saves time and really isn’t much of a disadvantage compared to last year or previous years.”

The idea for an online ballot was originally brought up last semester by James Grippe, a member of the Elections Committee, and was adopted unanimously by the committee.

Ruth Lopez, a senior majoring in English, said that the online ballot allows her the freedom to vote despite her busy schedule.

“An online ballot would mean I could just vote from my laptop at work, or even from my iPhone,” she said. “The change seems appropriate, and it means that I’ll be able to vote this year!”

Stacey Troy, a junior majoring in computer science, agreed that online ballots are an improvement over past elections.

“It’ll be faster for the Elections Committee because they don’t have to verify each signature, count ballots, and seeing as how usually only 10 percent of undergrad votes in SA elections, they’ll be able to reach more people,” she said.

But Vincenzo Asaro, a senior majoring in integrative neuroscience, said online ballots pave the way for an increase in uninformed voters.

“Now you’re going to have random votes just because, instead of people who go to vote because they actually care,” he said. “People will make uninformed votes because it is easy.”