In ugly election, write-ins reign

In a particularly venomous student election season, it came as no surprise that some students, disenchanted by the pool of candidates, turned to their imaginations.

For them, the antidote was laughter — in the form of a write-in vote.

Write-in vote-getters included Brooklyn Stephens’ horse, “none of them are adequate” and Steve Holt, the perennial high school student body president from the Arrested Development television series, among many others.

The ability to cast a write-in vote, or write in the name of a candidate who is not already on the ballot, is required by the Student Code, said Andrew Phillips, chairman of the Board of Elections.

“Board of Elections always likes to take a look and see what the write-in votes are,” he said. “They provide a little bit of humor in our vote tabulations.”

He cited his favorite write-in this year as a vote for “hosseni mubarak (i hear he needs a new job)” in the race to fill the District 6 seat in Student Congress.

Other write-ins included Optimus Prime, Winnie the Pooh, Batman, “end the tyranny of the undergraduates!” and “nachos” followed by 64 exclamation points.

Of the 7,105 votes for student body president, about 4.3 percent were write-ins, marking a 59 percent increase from last year’s 2.7 percent.

“The reason may be some frustration with the student body elections,” Phillips said, adding that he can’t pinpoint a specific cause.

Last year’s satirical candidate Nash Keune received six write-in votes, and his makeshift narwhal castle received one.

“I mean Jesus got only two votes, so I guess that I’m three times as electable as Jesus,” Keune said. “I think (Darth) Vader got two votes, so I’m doing pretty well.”

Keune said this year’s election was “ridiculous,” and that the main purpose of his campaign was to be funny and to have fun.

“I wish somebody could have taken part in another satirical campaign. There was so much to parody this year,” he said.

But Phillips said write-in votes can be a serious alternative, as graduate students sometimes run as write-ins.

Glynnis Ritter, a junior media production and communications major, received the most write-in votes at 58. She was followed by Kendall Marshall and Larry Drew II, who earned 17 and 15 votes respectively after their previous competition to become starting point guard.

Ritter began her campaign three days before the election with a Facebook event that reached about 85 attendees.

“It was just for fun,” Ritter said. “You don’t have to worry about getting called names or whatever or kind of all that crap that went along with the real election.”

Lauren Phipps, Ritter’s campaign manager and roommate, said their platform advocated for a “more sedentary lifestyle” and emerged from a lack of fast food options on campus and the distance of their apartment at Mill Creek Condominiums from UNC.

“I remember we were walking around FallFest and we really wished that UNC campus had a moving sidewalk, and if we were student body president we would make that happen,” Phipps said.

Ritter’s campaign promises included vending machines and soda fountains in every building, and shorter gym hours.

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