Elections favorites

As student elections season enters its final two weeks, no clear favorite has emerged among the four candidates for student body president.

Those vying for student government’s top office have split the traditional indicators of support that have predicted the winners of past races.

Rick Ingram collected more signatures than any candidate in recent memory.

Mary Cooper has the most members on her campaign’s Facebook page, 623 as of Thursday evening.

Ian Lee received the first endorsement of the season from the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies on Wednesday night.

In past years, candidates who have performed well in these categories have gone on to win the election.

Last year Hogan Medlin, the current student body president, received the most signatures on his petition.

Medlin and Jasmin Jones, his predecessor, were both endorsed by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies.

And Medlin had the most supporters on Facebook by a wide margin.

Brooklyn Stephens, the fourth candidate, said it was not yet possible to predict who would win the election.

“It comes down to the amount of support candidates have in the end,” she said.

Cooper said any attempt to pick out favorites is useless this early in the process.

Some students with experience in student government said signature count serves as a good indicator for future success.

Lee Storrow, a member of Student Congress, said the number of signatures collected by a candidate can be used to predict the outcome of the race.

“I sense a perception that Rick is going to win because of his campaign staff, and he got the most signatures,” he said.

Greg Strompolos, a 2010 candidate, said he thinks petition signatures are important because they show that a candidate has connected with students.

“Even if you have the most amazing platform … it’s really how many people are reached by the candidate and campaign,” he said.

But past elections have proven that signatures don’t mean everything.

In the 2009 election, Thomas Edwards received the most signatures but lost in a runoff election to Jones.

Storrow said that while Edwards started out strong, his support dwindled near the end of the race, and Jones gained momentum when she received eliminated campaigns’ support.

“Once signatures are collected, it becomes an entirely different race,” said Chelsea Miller, the chairwoman of the finance committee of Student Congress.

When signing petitions, she said, students are only helping candidates get on the ballot. Afterwards, they look at platforms and ideas to decide their vote, she said.

Shruti Shah, the runner-up of the 2010 election and a member of The Daily Tar Heel’s editorial board, agreed that petition signatures have little to do with the final outcome.

“I would never say a signature equates to a vote.”

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.