Saturday, July 5th, 2008

Humorous write-ins fill ballots

Coach Bill Self, President Bush and Malcolm X among the people voted for in Student Senate elections

Many students voted "other" in last week's Student Senate election. Mario Chalmers received the most write-in votes.

By Brenna Hawley (Contact)

Monday, April 14th, 2008

Celebrities, fictional characters, student athletes and a select group of KU students came together at an unusual spot last week — the Student Senate election ballot.

Rohit Venkatasubban, Wichita junior and elections commissioner, said that write-in spots on a ballot served the purpose of giving students a voice if they didn’t like the registered coalitions and candidates. He said write-in candidates still have to be registered two days before elections in order to get a seat, and that those votes can impact how many votes another candidate gets.

Venkatasubban said he thought many people filled in write-in spots just for fun.

“An empty box that allows you to type whatever you want in it on a ballot is pretty tempting,” Venkatasubban said.

Some people who got written in were already running for Senate. Venkatasubban said that if they were written in the category they were already running for then the votes got counted in their overall number.

Mario Chalmers received the most write-in votes with 107. Forty-two of those were for president, which gave him one percent of that vote. Students wrote him in for more than half of the categories of Senate seats.

Some students whose names were written in weren’t running for Senate and didn’t know that people were writing them in.

Jarred Harrington, Bonner Springs freshman, received 27 votes, the next highest number to Chalmers. He said he didn’t tell anyone to vote for him, but guessed that his fraternity brothers in Phi Gamma Delta were writing his name into the ballots.

Harrington plans to run for Senate next year.

“I was going to this year, but I didn’t have time,” he said.

Celebrities and fictional characters appeared on the ballots many times. One voter wrote in all five members of pop band N*SYNC and even knew that band member Lance Bass’s first name was really James. Celebrities like Tom Cruise, David Bowie and Tupac vied for Senate seats. Students wrote in political figures like President George W. Bush, former presidents Grover Cleveland and Abraham Lincoln, Reverend Al Sharpton, former Senator Bob Dole and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Students also wrote in fictional characters such as Batman, Captain America, Stewie Griffin, Harry Potter, SpongeBob SquarePants, Mickey Mouse and McLovin.

Prominent athletes at the University were written in many different categories. One student wrote in Mario Chalmers for president and Chuck Norris for vice president. Brandon Rush, Sasha Kaun, Cole Aldrich, Sherron Collins, Conner Teahan and former basketball player Julian Wright all made appearances from the basketball team. A student wrote in basketball coach Bill Self for freshman/sophomore CLAS senator. Students nominated football players Todd Reesing and Aqib Talib for Senate.

Other voters showed their displeasure with Senate with write-in spots criticizing the organization. Some comments included, “I wish one of these parties had platforms that mattered,” “disband Senate” and “someone not affiliated with the Greek system.”

Nate Girard, Topeka junior, ran for an education seat with the coalition Students of Liberty. He said he told many people to vote for him, and four wrote him in for junior/senior CLAS senator. Girard didn’t win this year but planned on running next year.

“I think a bunch of people don’t care or realize that their vote for Senate could create a more positive thing for the University,” Girard said.

— Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird

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