The Government of the Student Body held its annual elections before Spring Break, once again attracting few voters.

Jason Funk, senior in computer engineering, received votes and finished in the top four of every race except Schilletter University Village and veterinary medicine, ran a write-in campaign, but decided not to accept a seat because of the time commitment.

Funk was eligible for two of the seats he won: engineering senator and interresidence senator.

“It was primarily because I had other things that were priorities that I didn’t want to sacrifice,” he said.

Funk said after seeing so many openings on the ballot, he decided to see how many seats he could win.

“I just wondered, ‘Hey, I wonder if I just tell my friends to vote, how many seats I could win?'” he said.

Funk said he made a note on Facebook telling those who read it to vote for him. After this, one of Funk’s friends made a Facebook group for his write-in campaign with the description “Write in Jason Funk for everything on GSB . why, because we want to see how many seats he can get.”

Funk said he really did consider accepting a seat, and that his campaign “wasn’t completely a joke.” He said because of student apathy toward GSB, Funk wanted to see how he could fair in the election.

“Knowing that not many people vote, therefore, it was kind of a little experiment, if you will, to see actually how many seats I can win,” he said.

Brian Phillips, GSB senator, junior in political science and president-elect who won 751 votes in this year’s election to take the presidency, said increasing voter turnout would be a goal for next year’s elections.

Phillips said it was important to seat an election commissioner early to ensure that elections are fair and then focus on voter turnout.

Phillips said one of the reasons why turnout was so low this year was because there was an unopposed executive slate.

“It is a little disappointing to see voter turnout so low,” he said.

Michael Gilbert, GSB election commissioner and senior in mechanical engineering, said he was pleased how the election went this year. He said the voter turnout actually exceeded his expectations. Many people are excited to accept their seats as senators, Gilbert said.

The deadline to accept a senate seat was midnight Tuesday morning, Gilbert said. As of today, there are two seats open because those elected have declined. Seven seats are currently tied and are now in the hands of the constituency councils of those seats, he said.

Phillips said he wanted get more people involved with the organization, and not just with the government side of GSB.

“My goal is to get as many people involved in GSB as possible,” he said.

Phillips said anyone interested in being on the GSB cabinet should contact him or GSB Senator Ian Guffy, senior in computer science and vice president-elect. Applications are also available at the GSB office. Besides the senate responsibilities they both share, Phillips said he and Guffy are working on filling cabinet positions.

“We’re focused on putting together a good-quality cabinet,” he said.