The lack of candidates running for several student government positions has prompted an unusually high number of students to launch write-in campaigns.
So far, only two have seen any measure of success.
Both Engineering sophomore Prakshi Mahajan and Engineering and Wharton sophomore Elaine Khoong have secured enough votes to become official candidates for Engineering representative to the Undergraduate Assembly.
However, the possibility remains that other write-in candidates for several positions may become official before the elections close this Sunday at 5 p.m., Nominations and Elections Committee Vice Chairman of Elections Eli Hoffman said.
To become an official write-in candidate, a student must receive a number of write-in votes equal to the number of signatures that the regular candidates must get in order to gain a spot on the ballot.
Once this number -- which varies depending on the position the candidate is running for -- is reached, the NEC contacts the student to see whether the person would like to confirm his or her candidacy.
Even after write-in candidates become eligible to win, their names will not appear on the ballot.
This year, only two candidates decided to run for four available spots reserved for UA Engineering representatives. Similarly, each of the two positions of College representative to the 2006 and 2007 class boards only had one official candidate.
No candidate is officially running for vice president of corporate sponsorship for the Class of 2007.
A write-in candidate seeking the UA Engineering position only needs 32 votes to become an official candidate, but the other three unfilled spots require over 100.
Hoffman said there are generally few write-in candidates but that this year is an exception.
"We usually have enough candidates to fill all the positions," he said, adding that students are less likely to attempt write-in campaigns if there are a high number of official candidates.
Engineering freshman Riya Abraham -- who is attempting a write-in campaign for Engineering representative to the UA -- agreed, saying she would not have decided to run if there were more official candidates than positions available.
"I didn't find out about the actual campaign until the deadline, so I just gave up on that," Abraham said. "I saw in the DP that there were [Engineering] spots open for UA, and the night that the elections opened, I decided to campaign."
Abraham said she is trying to spread the word about her campaign through friends.
"I just [Instant Messaged] people, asked them to spread the word to people on their halls and messaged a few people on [thefacebook.com] who were in Engineering," she said. "After that, it was just word of mouth."
Wharton sophomore Corey Hulse -- Web editor of 34th Street -- is running a write-in campaign for vice president of corporate sponsorship for the Class of 2007.
Hulse, who ran for class president freshman year but "lost terribly," cited his interest in student government and the fact that nobody was running for his desired position as motivation for his current campaign.
"I thought that I was a good fit, especially since I am in Wharton," he said.
Noting his 452 friends on thefacebook.com, he added that he spread word of his campaign through the site as well as through his friends' AOL Instant Messenger profiles and his personal Web site.
"I'm not going to go around hanging posters because I think it's a waste of paper," he said.
Hoffman said write-in campaigns are often more challenging to conduct than official campaigns.
"Being a write-in candidate is difficult because you are running against people who are on the ballot and you have to have people actually vote for you instead of clicking your name," he said.
Hoffman said that write-in candidates are more common during spring elections because freshmen are particularly anxious to become involved with student government.
