Government of the Student Body senators and executive members are preparing themselves for elections today and tomorrow.

The presidential candidates each have their own way of handling the stress of election results.

“To calm my nerves, I’m going on a run, weather permitting,” GSB presidential candidate Dan Rediske said.

Candidate Spencer Hughes takes a different approach. “I’m just not going to dwell on it, and think about other things,” Hughes said.

Students can vote for the GSB president and vice president, as well as their senators based on their major and where they live. Voting began at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, March 11.

The senate seats are uncontested in all categories, except the College of Design.

Every position also has a write-in option, and any seat that is available can be filled with a write in.

“Because the senate races are not competitive, there are always issues with write-ins,” said Adam Guenther, election commissioner. “Sometimes its more of a joke and they don’t actually want to be on GSB.”

Results will be announced at 6 p.m. in the Gold Room of the Memorial Union on March 14, because the GSB has a rule saying the winner cannot be released within 24 hours of the election.

One of the things that needs to be done before the winner is announced is double-checking voter eligibility.

The voting roster provided from the registrar is a list of people and what they are eligible to vote for. Some circumstances may change from the time the election commission receives the roster and when voting takes place.

“Some people will change their major so their college changes so they can vote for someone else,” Guenther said. “ We have to double check they are going to vote for what they currently are, not what they want to vote for.“

In 2002, the university started using the online voting system instead of paper ballots.

“Until 2009 the election commission could log on and see what the current vote counts were, a problem occurred when a newspaper leaked who was winning after day one,” Guenther explained. “The next day there was a story, so ITS no longer lets us see a live feed.”

Guenther will know who the winner is Wednesday at noon. He and Jeff Sorensen, Director of Web Development for IT Services, will be the only ones who know who the winner is.

The goal for voter turnout this year is 4,650 people, which is roughly 15 percent of campus. 2,652 students voted in last years election out of 29,887 students, which was roughly nine percent of the student body. Only students are able to vote. Any faculty member that is also a student is able to vote.

Guenther thinks that voter turnout is low because the senate races have no competition, and therefore there is no incentive to vote. “If it was more competitive, more people would want to vote,” said Guenther.

The Gold Room is currently booked for 50 people to attend Thursday night’s presidential announcement, but Guenther would like to see more people come.

“If 200 people show up I would be ecstatic, and I would try to get a bigger room. I will try to accommodate people as much as possible,” Guenther said.

To vote, students go to www.vote.iastate.edu. Students log in just like logging into CyMail. Voting for the next Iowa State GSB president closes Tuesday at 11:59 p.m.