Our dedicated, selfless Government of the Student Body representatives have done it again.

Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that they haven’t done it.

After five hours of debate, amendments and more amendments, GSB senators failed to even vote on the bills that kept them in the Campanile Room past midnight.

The source of controversy was a proposed plan for electronic voting on the Internet — an issue that, at first glance, seems like the obvious direction to take for Iowa State, once one of the nation’s most wired universities.

Not only is voting on the Web the way of the future, but it also may help to increase the embarrassing 6 percent voter turnout for last spring’s GSB elections.

The senate has to vote on two bills in order to instate electronic voting.

The first bill would amend the GSB bylaws to include ramifications for electronic voting, an action that would not force the university to implement the process any time soon.

The second bill would allocate money to the ISU Computation Center to create the program to make Internet voting a reality.

Many senators took issue with the security of Internet voting, claiming that it would be too easy for people to watch over students’ shoulders and force them to vote for certain candidates.

The first problem with this argument is the arrogant image it gives GSB senators and executives.

It’s high-minded of them to think students actually care enough to rig a GSB election.

If only 6 percent of ISU’s student population is taking the time to vote, and nearly half the senators are appointed rather than elected, it wouldn’t take many votes to change the election’s outcome.

Senators also feared students could find ways to cast multiple votes with the Internet method, making the results inaccurate and, again, allowing people to rig the elections.

But Computation Center employees have assured both GSB and the Daily that measures would be taken to prevent students from voting more than once.

And even with the current paper voting system, students could easily cast as many votes as there are voting stations. According to a past member of the election commission, GSB doesn’t actually look that closely at the ballots to make sure each voter has submitted only one.

GSB senators need to take the time to gather accurate information outside of GSB meetings so they can formulate their vote in the hours prior, not let their ignorance and irresponsibility waste their own and other students’ time.

If electronic voting can work, it should be given a chance. Then maybe, just maybe, a few more students might take the time to care about their student government.

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Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Sara Ziegler, Greg Jerrett, Kate Kompas and Carrie Tett.