Campaigns for Government of the Student Body senatorial and executive seats have officially begun.

The elections kicked off Thursday, Jan. 24 in the Cardinal Room of the Memorial Union.

Election Commissioner Adam Guenther began the event by stating his expectations for candidates and pointed out his commission’s goal of raising the voter turnout this year.

“We had 3,000 students vote last year and we want to see that number rise to 4,600 students this year,” Guenther said. “Hopefully we can reach that number and maybe even surpass it.”

Following the kickoff, the two GSB executive tickets spoke about their platforms and plans for their campaigns.

The two executive pairs running are Spencer Hughes, junior in speech communication, for president with Hillary Kletscher, sophomore in biological systems engineering, as his vice president.

The other pair is Daniel Rediske, a junior in computer science and political science, for president and Zachary Bauer, sophomore in political science, as his vice president.

Hughes and Kletscher spoke about their slogan, “It’s all about U,” and how they are running a student-first campaign.

The duo believes ISU students are not united with GSB and that this is an issue that needs to be fixed.  Hughes pointed to the executive scholarships that the GSB president, vice president and finance director receive as part of the problem.

“This is wrong. If we are going to be united as a student body, this is something we have to change,” Hughes said.

Candidate for vice president Kletscher spoke about why she and Hughes would make a good president and vice president, stating the two are on the same page and that they feel they have the right message for students.

Rediske and Bauer are looking to better communicate with students and to educate them more about what GSB can do for them.

“We can empower students more by making ourselves more transparent,” Rediske said.

The two alluded to student input as a keystone in bettering GSB, as well as noting how it has been lacking input. Rediske also said they want to spend student fees better.

Bauer candidate called to attention some areas he and Rediske worked on while being part of GSB.

“Each of us deals with different aspects of GSB,” Bauer said. “Dan works with finance, and I work with public relations, so that gives us a good balance and understanding.”