Student Association officials could breathe easily after tallying the senate election votes Thursday night, as 17 write-in candidates filled a gap left by the lack of official campaigns.

SA President Huda Scheidelman said, “I’m pleased that we have a full senate.” The write-in response “doesn’t speak out against the districting, but against the lack of publicity.”

The 45-seat senate met for its first session Sunday night, easing fears that senate seats would be left vacant. Before the election, only 35 candidates turned in the petitions necessary to be listed on the ballot. Of these official candidates, 28 won seats, and write-in candidates filled in the 17-seat gap.

More publicity than usual was needed because this is the first time the new districting plan was used, Scheidelman said.

In past SA elections, candidates ran for 48 seats divided into two districts. The off-campus district elected 32 senators and the on-campus district elected 16 senators.

Last January, the two-district system was declared unconstitutional by the SA Supreme Court and a five-district plan was approved in April by the senate.

Although only 787 ballots were cast in last week’s school-wide election, Scheidelman said she felt voter turn-out was “good.” Some districts had senators elected with over 100 votes because of stronger campaigns, Scheidelman said.

Sen. Ken Hanson, an elected write-in candidate in District 1, said he decided to run to “lend a hand” to the SA. Hanson said although he was elected with only nine votes, he served as a senator last spring and said he is qualified for the position.

Hanson said it is ironic that no official candidates ran in District 1, considering the new districting policy was created to ensure equal representation. “Sometimes they (SA) make these reforms, and look what happened,” Hanson said.

The new districting policy might have had an effect on the voter turn-out, said District 3 Sen. Jennifer Novak. “I talked to a lot of people who didn’t even know there was a new policy,” Novak said. “I hope next year a lot more people become involved and run (for senate),” she said.

Despite his campaign efforts of distributing flyers and going door-to-door, District 4 Sen. Jordan Kagan said he felt the voter turn-out was “pitiful” and “disappointing.” About three percent of students voted, Kagan said.

District 5 Sen. Tracy Deis said “I wasn’t really nervous about it (the election), but I’m glad I made it.” The turn-out was “small, due to lack of information.” Deis added “It’s always like that here (at NIU).”