This year's Undergraduate Student Government Elections Code is significantly different than last year's procedure, with changes including a shorter campaign time, more lenient rules, and fewer places to vote.

Students will only have a little over one and a half weeks to become familiar with candidate platforms, instead of last year's designated two and a half weeks.

Several members of USG expressed concern that less time to campaign will hinder the election process.

"It is definitely detrimental to have a shorter campaign because there is less time to meet with groups, to hear their views, to understand issues, which is important," said USG President Justin Zartman.

Town Sen. Jason Covener, who was involved in writing the code, disagreed.

"I think elections are an imposition on students," he said. "Candidates have to get their messages across, but we don't need to drag it out."

Sam Spencer, elections commissioner, said this year's candidates will have difficulty reaching large organizations.

"The shorter time frame minimizes candidates' exposure; they can't visit as many groups which is a major way to get the word out," he said.

In spite of this, Covener maintained that a shorter election is better, saying the code reduces spending caps. New spending restrictions will be $100 for senate and $450 for the executive ticket, down from $800 last year.

"Ultimately we hope to make more people able to campaign," Covener said.

Additionally, there will be no elections court, meaning that the USG Supreme Court will handle all election code violations.

Regarding concern that this will overwhelm the court, Covener said the elections code aims to get rid of smaller violations.

For example, under the new rules, flier violations are non-existent.

This means that candidates can post on top of other candidates' fliers without penalty.

"Let's say your Kennedy flier is up, then I take a College Republicans flier and put that up, followed by my flier on top of that; it's all OK," Covener said.

However, some senators disagreed with this lack of rules.

"It's college politics, and I don't think it should be that cutthroat," said Pollock/Nittany Sen. Mike Kennedy.

Another significant change is the decrease in polling stations, from thirteen last year to one this year. Students can also vote online, but if they want to vote in person, they will have to do so at the HUB-Robeson Center.

"We are in a position to reduce a lot," Covener said. "If we have voting in one residence commons, we have to have it in all of them. I think it turns people off to have the area they're living in taken over by the elections."

At the senate meeting, he also said that each polling place costs $1,000 to run, saying "I don't think it takes too much to ask to have someone walk to the HUB or a computer lab and get online and vote."

The election code also allows campaigning on the second and third floor of the HUB, where the USG and other organizations' offices are located.

"If we can bug everyone else, why not people on those floors? They aren't immune to elections," USG Senate President Sean Clark said.

The election code, which came out of senate's Legislative and Appropriations Review Committee, was passed by senate at its last meeting. It will now go to Zartman for approval. If he vetoes it, the senate can overturn that decision by a two-thirds majority. Then the document will go to the USG Supreme Court for final authorization.