As many students focused their attention on the basketball court Tuesday night, others prepared for another competition -- the race for a position in next year's student government.
Prospective candidates planning to run in the general student election and their campaign managers attended a mandatory meeting in Mitchell Hall to formally declare their candidacies and learn about the codes that will govern the next four weeks of campaigning.
General elections will be held Feb. 11. For all races in which candidates do not receive more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election will be held one week later, Feb. 18.
Four students have declared themselves candidates for the position of student body president. One student intends to run for Carolina Athletic Association president, two for Residence Hall Association president, one for Graduate and Professional Student Federation president, 11 for senior class office and 41 for Student Congress, said Brian Fauver, chairman of the Board of Elections.
Because of the Larson-Daum Campaign Reform Act, which passed Nov. 12, candidates are required to use only allocations from Congress to fund their campaigns. To receive funding, candidates must obtain the required number of signatures in the next week.
Candidates running for student body president and CAA president must obtain at least 800 signatures. Students running for senior class office or RHA president must have 300 signatures. One hundred signatures are required for GPSF presidential candidates, and those running for Congress must receive 20 signatures.
The act also reduces the amount of time candidates are allowed to campaign -- in the past, candidates had a four-week campaign period. Fauver said this will "lessen the mass of campaign stuff that kind of goes on in campaign season."
Candidates will begin campaigning orally today, but they are forbidden to use campaign materials until they turn in their petitions and receive funding. Fauver said the reform is impacting campaigns greatly. He said, "It will be a lot more work for us, but candidates will be a lot more accountable."
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