3 candidates clear hurdle in SBP race

Monique Hardin, Hogan Medlin and Shruti Shah each gathered the signatures of support required to become certified candidates for student body president on Thursday night.

The three will now begin campaigning for the general election, which will take place on Feb. 9.

The other three candidates will work to become certified for a race that will likely include all six individuals.

Each of the six candidates turned in more than the required 1,000 signatures, but Nash Keune, Joe Levin-Manning and Greg Strompolos were not certified after the Board of Elections declared some of their signatures invalid.

Keune needs only two more valid signatures, Levin-Manning needs 18 and Strompolos needs 74.

“It’s just a little speed bump, but it’s okay,” Strompolos said. “It’s not the end of the world. I just got 11 more on my way back from figuring out I wasn’t on the ballot.”

Board of Elections chairman Pete Gillooly must announce the final list of candidates by 9 a.m. Monday, according to the Student Code, which outlines election law.

Students who sign more than one petition for student body president render their names invalid on both.

Gillooly said each of the six candidates had at least 100 invalid signatures on their petitions.

The candidates gathered more than 7,000 valid signatures altogether. In comparison, 9,513 students cast votes in last year’s runoff election.

Last year’s race also saw six candidates running for student body president, two of whom eventually competed in a runoff.

Medlin gathered the greatest number of valid signatures, turning in more than 1,800.

Forty students, aside from the student body president candidates, received certification for other elected offices, such as Carolina Athletic Association president, senior class president and student Congress representative.



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu