After three meetings of lengthy debate and discussion, the Government of the Student Body finally passed a bill outlining registration procedures for the upcoming March elections.

The bill passed 24-4-4 with the required two-thirds majority of votes.

However, there was still some controversy among senators over the section of the bill regarding specialty seats.

Steve Erickson, off campus, made a motion to rule the bill out of order because he felt the bill was unconstitutional.

“The whole idea of specialty seats should be ruled out of order because you can’t divide things into racial blocs,” he said.

Tricia Sandahl, graduate student in community and regional planning, was in the audience at the GSB meeting Wednesday night. Speaking before the senate, she said she also thought the bill should be ruled out of order, though for not the same reasons.

Sandahl has served as former justice and chief justice pro tempore of the GSB Supreme Court, former election commissioner and former graduate student senator. She said the bill should be ruled out of order because it placed an unnecessary burden on students.

In order for students to vote for specialty seats, they must register to cast those votes. All other senate seats require no registration process.

“I felt it was discriminatory to those students who wish to vote for specialty seats because it put an extra burden on them to register for their right to vote,” she said.

Sandahl said she has a lot of mixed feelings regarding the issue of specialty seats as a whole.

“I don’t know if I can come down on one side of the issue or another — there are a lot of compelling arguments on both sides of the issue,” she said. “I don’t like the fact that students have to give up a vote to vote for specialty seats. I would like for students to be able to vote for three things, rather than two.”

Sandahl said the bill also makes it difficult for off-campus students to register.

“You are still excluding some students’ rights to register to vote. The distance factor places an extra burden on them,” she said.

After hearing the senators’ points of view, GSB Vice President Jamal White made the final decision and did not rule the bill regarding specialty seats unconstitutional.

He said although the arguments had some valid points, he did not feel there was enough reason to have the bill ruled out of order.

“There are always going to be problems regarding provisions so every student can vote,” White said. “Nothing I’ve seen makes me feel [specialty] seats are unconstitutional.”

Tracy Harling, GSB election commissioner, said students can register to vote for specialty seats today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the ground floor of the Memorial Union by the west staircase.

She said students must bring their ISU cards and fee cards to register.