Two years ago, the national elections at UCSD were a mess. Caught off guard by a higher-than-expected voter turnout, poll workers from the San Diego County Registrar of Voters were simply overloaded. Huge lines formed at polling stations across the campus, out-of-precinct voters were given provisional ballots — or even turned away — instead of being directed to the correct polling station, and absentee voters were erroneously denied provisional ballots. Student leaders had to be deputized by the state to help out the swamped poll employees.

By late evening, the Price Center polling station ran out of English-language ballots, forcing over 40 students to cast votes on Spanish and Vietnamese versions, using sample ballots for reference. Lines persisted through the wee hours: The last voters cast ballots at the Muir Commons polling station at 12:35 a.m.

In contrast, this year’s election came off without a hitch. A smaller turnout was expected for the midterm election, which reduced congestion at the polls. But the Registrar of Voters obviously learned from its 2004 mistakes. The new electronic voting system had none of the glitches of the old one; Price Center had two polling stations instead of just one (and plenty of ballots); students who had not received absentee ballots were properly directed to use provisional versions.

Hopefully, this election will serve as an example for 2008.