Last Friday, the race for president and vice president of the Government of the Student Body was cut down from five tickets to two.

Ryan Crampton, junior in political science, and Jeff Edwards, senior in finance, will form one of the tickets. The second pair will be Daniel Fischer, senior in agricultural business, and Maggie Luttrell, senior in history.

Friday, candidates were required to submit petitions with a minimum of 1,500 signatures.

Both Fischer and Crampton admitted that obtaining 1,500 signatures was a lot to ask but was also worth it now that the race is down to just two groups.

“I guess that really eliminates some of the competition and allows us to focus a little bit more on our strengths,” Fischer said. “I know it’s a really difficult time getting all those signatures, so with people being asked multiple times for signatures, I think it was bound to happen.”

GSB election commissioner Alden Peterson, junior in mechanical engineering, said he was surprised to see three of the five initial groups drop out of the presidential race.

“This whole process is a lot of work,” he said. “But, I was surprised to see only two groups [were] left.”

Crampton agreed that having more than half of the tickets drop out was as a surprise.

“It was a shock,” Crampton said. “1,500 signatures is a lot, but our whole campaign is getting out and talking to students.”

With just two remaining tickets, additional importance will likely be put on the presidential debate that will take place this Thursday. Peterson said the time and location of are yet to be determined.

“It makes me a little bit more comfortable knowing who the competition is,” Fischer said. “Maybe now we will be able to get more time to communicate our ideas and our platform [during Thursday’s debate.]”

Crampton said the debate will definitely be pressure-filled but successful nonetheless.

“I’m excited because I think it’s going to allow our message to be even clearer to students,” he said. “It does bring more pressure, though, because we have a clear competitor now, and there’s going to be clearer questions directed to both sides of the floor.”

Although the election process is still in its early stages, both Fischer and Crampton have acknowledged the greek community as a key demographic in their campaigns.

“The greeks are always a voting bloc that turns out to vote,” Crampton said. “Winning the greek vote would be a big step towards winning the election – but the success of GSB doesn’t rely on the greeks.”

Although Fischer agreed that the greek vote is vital, he said the vote will branch beyond just one demographic.

“It’s going to be a huge contest over those voters [greeks],” Fischer said. “Hopefully, we can get a lot of support from the whole university.”