Despite only one seat on the Government of Student Body senate being officially contested on the ballot this year — and many positions having no official candidate at all — each of the 38 senate positions were filled according to results announced Thursday for the 2004 GSB elections.

With a total of 1,432 votes cast to write-in candidates, including 75 write-ins for GSB president and vice president, even seats which had been unable to present a candidate will be filled.

The official GSB ballot listed no candidate for seats representing the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Education. Neighborhoods such as Frederiksen Court Community, the Towers Residence Association, the University Student Apartment Community and the Union Drive Association were also without candidates. Only nine candidates were officially listed to fill the 12 off-campus seats, as well.

Yet each of these seats found contenders through write-in candidate votes.

The lack of official candidates for GSB is puzzling, said Henry Alliger, the lone incumbent challenged for his seat.

“Why don’t people run? That’s exactly what I want to know,” Alliger said. “The basic theory is that, as long as things are getting done, and they’re not affected too much, students don’t care.”

Nathan Katzer, sophomore in agronomy, and Nathaniel Johansen, freshman in agricultural business, challenged Alliger for the two College of Agriculture seats in GSB.

Alliger was able to keep his seat in the senate for next year; however, in a race for two seats, he finished second to Nathan Katzer, who had 295 votes — 73 more than Alliger.

Alliger said the lack of interest overall was disappointing, and part of the problem may be the departure of many of this year’s senators.

Although 26 official candidates were fewer than the number needed to fill the senate, the number did was an improvement over the 2003 election. Last year’s ballot featured only 21 candidates to fill the 37 total seats, and only the two seats were contested.

Election commissioner Clint Fichter said failure by housing councils to find candidates likely contributed to the problem.

“I’m surprised that the hall councils don’t do more to find candidates,” he said. “Even if it’s just a rubber-stamp candidate, it would be better than nothing.”

Danny Short, president of the Union Drive Association, said the lack of a UDA candidate didn’t matter much to him.

“Personally, I don’t feel like GSB does a very good job listening to outside sources. It’s nice to have a seat on the senate, but it’s not a very big voice,” Short said.

Fichter said another problem lay in the concept of serving on GSB itself.

“I think most people don’t care,” he said. “There’s no real perks at all to being a GSB senator. Maybe you could put it on your resume, but it’s a pretty big commitment for just that.”

It’s much easier to run for an office as a write-in candidate, he said, because such candidates are not required to collect signatures, and need only garner enough support from voters to bypass other candidates. If there are none, this is easily done.

“I’ve never really seen it as a problem. The people who take it upon themselves to run want to get something done, and we’re more than happy to work with them. It’s to be admired,” said Tony Luken, speaker of the senate and a four-year veteran of GSB.