Three different "armies" of students dressed in orange, green and pink with matching flyers in hand, scoured Penn State’s campus this afternoon, urging students to cast their vote in the University Park Undergraduate Association election.
The three cohorts of campaigners represented the presidential tickets for TJ Bard (sophomore-economics and political science), Travis Salters (junior-broadcast journalism and African and African American studies) and Joe Grimes (senior-crime, law and justice and energy, business and finance).
But one color was missing – blue.
The blue Presidential ticket David Adewumi and Sri Pisupati could not be seen around campus this afternoon, because they said they have a "different" campaign strategy than other teams which does not include printing thousands of flyers or relying on students wearing campaign apparel.
“I did the flier thing [last year],” Adewumi (senior-Spanish) said. “Students aren’t influenced by that. They don’t want to be pestered.”
Instead, Pisupati (freshman-bioengineering), who said he campaigned for about 45 minutes this afternoon, said the pair has been encouraging voters electronically through Facebook posts and videos posted online.
But Adewumi said an endorsement email from Stefen Wisniewski, former offensive lineman for the Nittany Lions, is one of his most effective campaign strategies.
Though the email states, “My name is Stefan Wisniewski... Join me in supporting my friend, David Adewumi and Sri Pisupati ,” it was sent from Adewumi’s email account – not Wisniewski’s.
Even though he did not personally send emails from his account, Wisniewski confirmed that the text was his word.
“I wanted to endorse my friend, so [Adewumi] had me write an email. He’s a candidate so it made more sense for him to send it, and that works for me,” Wisniewski, Class of 2010, said.
But Adewumi and Pisupati are not the only ones using their tech savvy skills to collect votes. A mass text message from Bard and running mate Courtney Lennartz (sophomore-health policy and administration) puts them in the electronic campaign.
By compiling their respective cell phone contacts, Bard said supporter Adam Boyer (junior-history and political science) spent most of the day firing off the text blasts which came from the Bard-Lennartz Gmail account.
“It’s unique because we can text our friends in an effective way," Bard said in regard to his friends receiving one more hint in their cell phone inboxes on who to vote for today.
Head Elections Commissioner Dustin Dove (senior-secondary education and political science) said no violation has been filed against the ticket, because no one has brought it to their attention.
As Election Day winds down and snow begins to fall, all candidates said they will remain relentless. Each ticket said they have more plans to draw in the final votes before polls close at 10 p.m.
