Ballot position for the candidates of this year's Undergraduate Student Government Senate elections will possibly have a large impact on the candidates' chances of winning.

The trend from years past primarily has been that the higher up on the ballot a candidate's name appears, the higher that candidate's chance of winning is.

In previous years, being at the top of the list has helped foster a win.

With this year's senate race, ballot position seems to be a key element in winning a town senate seat. Thirty-seven candidates are vying for a town senator position. Nineteen of those candidates will ultimately find themselves with spots on the USG Senate.

"I think there were a lot of issues in the university that sparked the interest of students and they wanted to take action," said USG Candidacy and Campaigning Commissioner Rhyan Romaine. "I think town is primarily older, more mature, and more interested."

Senate President Mike Fazio said the large turnout of town senate candidates is because of one of two possible reasons.

Fazio said either the current senate has done a better job than in years past and students have realized that it is a body of action that they'd like to get involved with, or the senate didn't do a good job and students want to make it better.

Fazio said it was the first reason.

"Senate's done a better job promoting its activities this year," he added.

Although the numbers for town senate positions are higher than in recent years, the numbers are dwindling for on-campus senate representatives.

There inevitably will be no race for North and East Halls, because only one student is running for the one North Halls position and for the three East Halls positions.

Pollock/Nittany and South Halls residence areas have three students running for each of the two open seats.

The place on the ballot under West Halls is blank. No one is vying for the vacant seat in West.

Write-in candidates will be the only means of filling the vacant seats.

"It's sad that people aren't more involved," said Debate and Publicity Commissioner Becky Werner, who is a USG town senator.

Romaine didn't think the lower turnout for the Residence Halls positions was because of a lack of interest, but rather an issue of the population of the dorms being mostly underclassmen.

She said that younger students may be less inclined to run for an important position as a senator because they are intimidated.

Six current senators are running for re-election in a town position and one current senator is running for a Pollock/Nittany seat.

Fazio said he wasn't too happy with his No. 31 position on the ballot .

"I've seen over the years a trend that if you're in the top 18, 19 — that's who gets elected," he said. "I'd feel a lot better if I was in the top 19."