For Undergraduate Student Government presidential candidates, the task isn't just persuading students to vote for them, it's convincing students to vote at all.

Whether it is catchy campaign slogans or strategic placement of fliers, this year's candidates have taken different approaches to grab student attention and cure voter apathy.

But candidates still have to be fiscally responsible. The new election code gives USG hopefuls $450 to spend, down from $800 last year, and no flier violations. In the past, candidates could not place their fliers on top of other tickets' advertisements. This year, there is no such rule.

Last Wednesday, financial statements were submitted to the Election Commission, revealing how the candidates spent money to reach potential supporters for this Wednesday's elections.

Erik Ives (junior-political science) and Matt Brezina (junior-electrical engineering) have distributed $288.14 between T-shirts, hand stamps, fliers, posterboard and their Web site.

In contrast, Jonathon Koltash (junior-finance and economics) and Jeremy Montgomery (junior-criminal justice and business administration) have devoted all their money to paper, using up $249.70 of their $380.20 total spent on 10,000 fliers and 100 posters.

Koltash and Montgomery have spent the most so far.

"Signs are the best way to get your name out, and on election day students recognize names over issues," Koltash said.

He added the change in the flier rule is also a concern.

"We chose a large amount of fliers for fear of a paper war. There should be flier violations, but this campus did not exploit the situation as much as it could have," Koltash said.

Rubina Javeri (junior-finance and international business) and Kris Ankarlo (senior-journalism) anticipated that other candidates might paper over their fliers, so they decided to invest $262.50 of their $330.86 total on T-shirts.

"They are the most effective means of advertising because they can't come off and they spread the word more effectively," Javeri said.

Her ticket has given T-shirts to its nearly 150 volunteers.

"There tends to be apathy, but with all of the controversy surrounding USG this year, students seem to be interested and all the candidates are doing a more selective job in different ways to get the word out," she said.

However, Dave Somerman (sophomore-pre-medicine) and Brandon Goldwater (sophomore-biology) decided to focus more on direct voter contact, opposed to banners and posters. The ticket has spent $95.51 on fliers so far.

"Our campaign strategy has nothing to do with money," Somerman said. "We're talking to people because the only way to get things done is to empower the students by informing them."

Somerman said he has spoken to 12 groups so far and an estimated 4,000 students.

Mike Gallo (junior-political science) and Chris Miller (sophomore-mechanical engineering and economics) agree that speaking to students is more effective than advertising.

The ticket has spent $54.70 on copies and Web site registration.

Recently, they added T-shirts because Gallo explained such an item is effective in that students see people wearing them in classes around campus.

Ed Brown (junior-political science) and Christian Boris (junior-meteorology) have also expanded their means of advertising.

As of last Wednesday, the ticket spent $206.57 on 5,500 fliers. However, since then they have invested in 25 T-shirts and accepted donations of lawn signs for windows and banners for balconies.

The updated financial statements are due at 5 p.m. today.