The Government of the Student Body has passed a bill that will require 2,500 signatures from students before potential executive candidates will be placed on the election ballot.

The apparent goal of the bill is to foster interest in the election process, but unfortunately it may create more problems than it will solve.

Consider this: Last year’s final election brought in 978 legitimate votes. President Dan Mangan and Vice President Jennifer Sulentic won the election with 307 votes — 1.35 percent of the student body population.

And now the Senate is requiring 2,500 signatures to get on the ballot? It all sounds a little un-democratic. Getting nominated should be, in theory, relatively easy. The hard part is supposed to be getting elected.

What this new system may end up doing is exclude potential candidates from the election process. And on the flip side, the new system caters to candidates that have an organized group of people to support them — the greek system, Veishea, Black Student Alliance, the Daily, etc.

Instead of electing candidates, students (the few that actually vote) may end up electing representatives from various special interest groups. This doesn’t sound too different from our national political party system.

But if total inclusion in the election process — from the candidates to the voters — is the goal of the GSB Senate, this new bill falls short.