Student Senate candidates continued campaigning after election ballots were made available at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Candidates in this year's Student Senate election spent Tuesday campaigning on campus after online voting opened in the morning.
Students can cast votes for Student Senate candidates on OU's website until Wednesday at 7 p.m. Senate made the election ballots available at 8 a.m. Tuesday and publicized them through a campus-wide email and on social media through the hashtag #OUElections.
The two tickets competing for senate seats, Impact and UNITE, spent the morning actively campaigning on campus greens.
“We’re kind of going along with The Incredibles theme — not all superheroes wear capes,” Alexis Apparicio, Impact’s candidate for vice president, said. "We want to make sure that students see the parallel between the two. It’s not necessarily trying to save senate, but shifting the focus back to students.”
The Impact ticket used a golf cart to campaign across campus, with treasurer candidate Kiera Fletcher leading the efforts in a superhero costume, Apparicio said.
Baker Center hosts a polling location just outside the first floor entrance where students can use laptop stations to cast votes. Campaigning in or near the building while voting is open will result in a campaign violation.
To avoid receiving fines from Senate’s Board of Elections, the UNITE ticket spent time tabling on College Green and campaigning in dining halls.
“We’re handing out Smarties in the dining halls and other main points on campus,” Paige Wilson, UNITE candidate for East Green Senator, said.
Nicole Kromalic, UNITE candidate for senator at-large, said the candidates chose to pass out Smarties because the candy relates to UNITE’s “SMART” platform. The acronym stands for speak, maximize, achieve, respond and thrive.
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Senate Board of Election’s Treasurer Jeffrey Bilingslea said about 4 or 5 students had voted at Baker’s poling location about 30 minutes into his shift at the station.
“A couple students have come up. A lot have said that they already voted or came to the table to vote,” Bilingslea said. “We just hope everyone comes out and votes. There’s two days of voting, so we still have tomorrow. We’re hopeful that people will turn out.”
Election results will be announced Wednesday at 9 p.m. in the Bobcat Student Lounge on the first floor of Baker Center.
Senate did not make voter turnout information available Tuesday. Senate will release that information along with election results Wednesday at 9 p.m., Jivanto van Hemert, graduate assistant for senate, said.
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