The first of the two-day Student Association elections showed some candidates trying to fill 17 empty seats with write-in campaigns.

Ten students filed petitions filled with the needed 200 signatures to be included on the ballot by the Jan. 23 deadline.

SA Election Commissioner Ray Callahan said he “saw a lot of people writing-in candidates on the ballots.”

Former SA Senate Speaker Phil Buoscio is running as a District 1 write-in and Callahan said he knows of two other candidates who are running “organized write-in campaigns,” in Districts 2 and 3.

Districts 1 and 3 have no official candidates.

Almost 300 students cast ballots Wednesday, reaching the 300 expected turnout overall, Callahan said.

owever, poll worker Kevin Taalman said the election was “slow”, adding at about 5:30 p.m.”only four people have been here in the last hour.”

In last semester’s election, 787 ballots were cast overall.

SA President Huda Scheidelman previously said she hoped the publicity for the one-day Martin Luther King statue referendum would draw voters, although some students were not aware of the referendum.

Sophmore Caroline Watkins said she did not know about the referendum and added she did not vote because she “did not know who she was voting for.”

SA bylaws state referendum votes can only last one day.

The referendum asks students to pay $1 extra in student fees for two semesters to help fund a Martin Luther King Jr. statue for the King Memorial Commons.