Several UNC students will flood campus today with clipboards in hand, soliciting signatures of support and officially kicking off the first round of the election season.
Almost 40 students began their journey to holding student government positions Thursday evening during a mandatory candidates’ meeting in which hopefuls declared their candidacy for the elections.
After learning the rules and regulations of the election season, four candidates committed to participating in the race for student body president. Three students are vying for Carolina Athletic Association president, and two pairs are campaigning for top positions as senior class officers.
While 25 students have declared intentions to run for positions in Student Congress, candidates for both the Graduate and Professional Student Federation president and Residence Hall Association president will run unopposed.
Many students recall last year’s turbulent election process, but Heather Sidden, chairwoman of the Board of Elections, said this year’s race has gotten off to a smooth start.
“We made changes over the summer to address specific problems that we had last year and to try and answer them.”
Each candidate is required to obtain a certain number of signed petitions from different students stating their support for that specific candidate.
Signing more than one candidate’s petition is an Honor Code violation, and members of the elections board are taking extra steps to ensure that there are no overlapping or duplicate names.
This year, candidates are required to submit a spreadsheet with the names and PID numbers of each student who signed their petition. Several BOE members said they think this will make it easier to detect foul play.
