"The first few meetings are really long, so you are going to have people that realize the commitment. I really don't think the fact that there are so many write-ins means they are going to drop out," she said.
One Senate write-in candidate won two seats.
Alex Ibrahim (freshman-political science) won both a Pollock and a North Senate seat as a write-in candidate. He said he told his friends he wanted to be a senator, and they wrote him in for their respective locations.
Ibrahim said he was not sure which seat he would choose, but it will depend on the runners-up.
"I am definitely going to accept one; it's just a matter of which one I accept. I am just trying to figure out who wants it the most," he said.
The Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS) also had several seats filled by write-ins, including some seats that had ties of up to eight people. In all, unofficial candidates won 19 of the 28 ARHS seats.
ARHS President Matthew Zielinski said there were more write-in candidates than normal this year.
"We have so many positions that are elected," he said. "Traditionally, there have been some write-in candidates."
Zielinski said he did not believe the number of elected write-in candidates would have an effect on ARHS.
The University Park Allocations Committee (UPAC) had write-in candidates win three out of eight seats.
UPAC chair Nicole Sandretto said the number of unofficial candidates is typical for UPAC. She said last year was one of the first years they had more people run than there were positions to fill in UPAC.
Sandretto said she did not feel being a write-in candidate determines the amount of commitment a person has. She said she knows two of the candidates intended to fill out the forms necessary to become an official candidate but missed the deadline for submitting them.
"In terms of a person's dedication, a lot of times people choose to be write-in candidates because they didn't realize election packets were due," she said.
In the executive USG contest, write-in votes had little effect on the result. According to election documents, 573 students wrote in a candidate or chose no candidate. Galen Foulke and Luke Adams, USG presidential and vice presidential election winners, won by 1,630 votes.
Many students chose to vote for fictional candidates in the election.
Ima Bullsheetr, The Daily Collegian columnist Kris Ankarlo's imaginary USG candidate, won 54 official votes for town senator in the election. Thirteen other votes were discounted because of spelling errors. Had Bullsheetr been considered, he would have won a senate seat, Elections Commissioner Tim Dorman said.
Other write-in candidates entered included Rick James, Ben Affleck, Bart Simpson and several characters from the Web site www.homestarrunner.com.
Dorman said the number of write-in candidates did affect the amount of time it took to confirm the elections results.
"We spent most of our time counting write-in votes," he said.
Dorman also said he was proud of the write-in candidates' efforts to get elected.
"Write-in campaigns are always very, very tough ... but I was extremely impressed with the write-in candidates this year," he said.
