‘A Ham Sandwich’ gets write-in votes

Electing a student body president is a serious matter for many UNC students — but others seem to have their own solutions for campus politics.

If students did not want to select one of the five candidates on Tuesday’s ballot, they had the option to write one in.

Write-in entries included “A Milkshake,” Batman, “Grumpy Cat,” “Manti Te’o’s Girlfriend” and six current and former UNC basketball players — Marcus Paige, Jackson Simmons, P.J. Hairston, Reggie Bullock, Harrison Barnes and Michael Jordan.

Freshman Tyler Morgan said he thinks the write-in ballots are an acceptable joke with the serious elections.

“I would definitely have voted for Manti Te’o’s girlfriend,” Morgan said.

Like the five candidates whose names appeared on the ballot, Batman had a Facebook page for his campaign, “Vote BATMAN for SBP.”

In last year’s election, write-in candidate “A Large Ham Sandwich” received several separate write-in votes.

The name carried on this year, though somewhat diminished, and “A Ham Sandwich” made it on the list again with one write-in vote.

While some students get a kick out of the bizarre candidates, others said it should be a more sincere process.

“It is pretty funny that people are writing them in, but if you’re going to joke about it, then why are you even voting?” freshman Abigail Miller said.

Several UNC students did receive a significant number of write-ins.

Patrick Bohan, with a total of seven votes, had the most of any of the write-in candidates, followed closely by Evan Shaw with five and Bryan Bailiff with four.

Evan Zeldin and Beyonce tied for fourth with three votes.

One student expressed admiration of the current student body president by submitting “Will Leimenstoll (4 MORE YEARS!).”

“It’s great when people take it seriously,” said Shruthi Sundaram, chairwoman of the Board of Elections.

“But then again, we are in college, and it’s hard to get college students to take it seriously.”

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.