Next week, 21 students will be on the ballot for 37 available Government of the Student Body Senate seats.

There are fewer candidates than usual this year, said Sam Umbach, GSB election commissioner.

Umbach said he is not certain why so few students chose to run in the election.

“It’s odd, because I thought we were going to get more [candidates] than usual,” Umbach said.

Umbach said the election commission held five candidate seminars this year rather than only three, and all of them were well-attended.

“A ton of people showed up who weren’t involved in GSB at all,” Umbach said. “A lot of those people ended up not doing the paper work and decided not to run.”

In the only contested election, three candidates are running for two available Richardson Court Association seats. Current GSB senator Jeremy Schweitzer is running to keep his seat, and Randy Gebhardt and Karla Hardy are both seeking their first term.

GSB senate seats are distributed among Iowa State’s nine colleges and eight residence areas.

There are no candidates on the ballot for the College of Design, College of Education, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, the College of Veterinary Medicine and graduate college, or for the Union Drive Association and University Student Apartment Community Residence Areas. “We always hope to have more competition than this,” Umbach said. “A number of people interested decided not to complete the process.”

Umbach said interested students who did not submit the fees or forms to the election commission are still eligible to run as write-in candidates.

“In contested races, write-in candidates are at a significant disadvantage,” Umbach said. “They are not included in activities, such as candidate debates.”

Off-campus students are much more likely to be successful as write-in candidates, Umbach said. There are three candidates on the ballot for eleven available off-campus residence area seats.

“If they vote for themselves and get four or five of their friends to vote for them, they get a senate seat,” Umbach said.

Schweitzer, sophomore in English, said he is running again because he enjoys providing input on issues that really involve students. During his year as a senator, Schweitzer said he has helped make recommendations to the university regarding tuition, the budget and the university calendar.

Gebhardt, freshman in electrical engineering, is currently the president of Wolf House in Larch Hall. He said running for GSB came up in conversations he had with Schweitzer. Schweitzer was president of Wolf House last semester.

Hardy, junior in sociology, also has experience as a house president as the president of Hanson House in Larch Hall. In her profile on the GSB election Web site, Hardy said she would pay attention to the needs of students. “Our concerns about safety regulations and restrictive housing policies will not go unheard,” she said.

Running in the only contested race, as well as knowing the other candidates, has increased the pressure, Gebhardt said. He knows RCA will be well represented no matter who wins. Schweitzer also said both of the other candidates are qualified for the job.

“I don’t think [knowing the other candidates] changed the way I campaigned,” he said. “A lot of what I’m doing is encouraging people to get out to vote.”