Photo by: Clare King

The campaign for USG presidency and vice presidency began last night, after tickets for both positions were announced at a meeting in the Driscoll Gallery.

Juniors Milan Chatterjee and Elizabeth Bhappu will contend against juniors Sam Gerk and Olivia Hails for leadership of the student senate, which is currently led by president Jim Francescon and vice president Felipe Diaz.

This year’s campaign race is unique in that it features two presidential hopefuls who are not members of Greek Life – for the first time since 2007. Bhappu and Hails, the vice presidential candidates, however, are both members of the same sorority, Delta Delta Delta.

Only Chatterjee has previous senate experience, serving for the past three years as either a senator or, currently, the president pro tempore.

Because of difficulties in last year’s voting system, voting this year will be completed through student’s email address with an individual code and a link to the ballot, which will limit students to one vote for each position.  

In previous years, the process was also done electronically; however, students were required to log into webCentral to vote. The change was advocated by Carl Johnson, director of campus activities and USG advisor, and senior Nikki Deutsch, who is overseeing the election process as chair of the senate affairs committee (SAC). Johnson and Deutsch hope that this new voting method will garnish more votes than in previous years.

Voting begins May 2, while campaigning will end on May 4 at 4 p.m., when the election process is officially over.

Throughout next week, USG members will be on Driscoll Bridge giving away free shirts and other items to get people to vote, said Deutsch, also a member of Delta Delta Delta.

The SAC, made up of six USG members, will monitor all campaigns in the upcoming week and make sure that all candidates follow the regulations and procedures instituted by SAC.

Some of those legislations include a restriction on door-to-door campaigning, which limits candidates to only promote their platform in common space areas such as Greek Life chapter meetings and on-campus dining halls.

The bill, which was passed two weeks ago by USG, bans a candidate from going door-to-door both on and off campus in attempt to woo voters in their favor.

According to senate election by-laws, a candidate cannot spend more than $60 on his or her campaign either, while president and vice president tickets may not spend more than $300.

Which ticket will you vote for and why? Tell us now by commenting below.