Students can vote today for the representatives who help allocate their student activity fees and represent them in their residence hall areas.

The University Park Allocations Committee (UPAC) and Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS) elections will be held today from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. online at http://cbt.uts.psu.edu/vote.

There is little competition in either race. Nine candidates are running for the eight available UPAC positions, and there are no contested positions in the ARHS election.

The ARHS election will determine officers in each of the six residence hall areas on campus. Area representatives organize activities and act as liaisons to each area's Residence Life and Housing and Food Services administrations.

The UPAC election will determine the eight elected undergraduate members of the 35-member body. UPAC allocates a portion of the $53 student activity fee that all University Park students pay each semester.

Of the remaining 27 UPAC seats, 22 undergraduates and one graduate student were chosen earlier this month by two student affairs representatives and Penn State student Keyur Shah, the UPAC chairman.

Shah said he would release the names of the appointed members tomorrow. He said the remaining graduate members of UPAC will be selected later this month.

This is the first year that ARHS and UPAC have held independent elections. In the past, both ARHS and UPAC have held their elections in conjunction with the Undergraduate Student Government election at the end of March.

All University Park undergraduate students can vote in the UPAC election, Shah said.

Amanda Staargaard, ARHS election commissioner, said only undergraduate students in a particular residence hall area can vote for that area's representatives.

Both Shah and Staargaard said election results should be available tomorrow afternoon.

Staargaard said the low number of people running for ARHS positions is not unusual.

"This happens every year," she said.

Staargaard said application packets for the ARHS election have been available since March 1 and were due March 14. Candidates had to get between 50 and 100 signatures to run, depending on the position, she said. Platform statements from the candidates are available at http://www.clubs.psu.edu/up/arhs/vote.

Write-in campaigns for the positions have been successful in the past, but usually only if there are no candidates on the ballot for a position, Staargaard said. She said write-in candidates must get votes from at least 2 percent of the total area population to win, except in North Halls, where they must get 5 percent because of that area's relatively small population.

If a candidate is already on the ballot, no required percentage of the vote is required, Staargaard said. Any positions without elected candidates will be appointed this fall by the area governments, she said.

Computers will be available in area commons that students will be able to use to vote, Staargaard said.

Shah said computers will also be available in the HUB-Robeson Center.

Staargaard said she did not know how the split from the USG election would affect voter turnout. She said election costs for ARHS were probably going to be comparable to what was spent in previous years.

According to last year's election results, Laura Maynard is the only elected UPAC member who is running again this year. Some appointed or elected incumbents may have already been reappointed to the committee.

The chairman of UPAC will be elected next Tuesday, Shah said. The chairman, who must have at least one year of experience on UPAC, is selected from among next year's appointed committee members by current UPAC members, he said.

Shah said that in the past, the chairman was selected before the UPAC elections, but scheduling conflicts with UPAC advisers delayed this year's selection.