Portraits plastered on downtown houses, candidates bombarding students in the "gauntlet" and pingpong balls helped bounce election votes to record highs.
Tallies increased by more than 2,000 votes, from 2,601 to 4,717.
Some candidates stood over voters' shoulders while they voted on laptops in campaign tents, said Julie Wright, commissioner of environmental affairs and the new executive vice president.
"The bad thing is you can persuade someone … if they ask for your opinion," she said.
Although having laptops at candidates' booths helped voter turnout, it can become a popularity contest, Wright said.
Candidates set up in the gauntlet, the walkway from Meriam Library past Glenn Hall to the bridge, instead of campaigning in the Free Speech Area like last year, Wright said.
Tara Harmon, Associated Students election officer, understands the pressure, she said.
"But think about it - with 21 candidates you're going to feel the pressures either way," Harmon said.
A.S. didn't set up polling booths this year because few people used them, and they had to be at least
25 feet away from campaigning areas, so they were in low-traffic areas such as outside Holt Hall and the second floor of the Bell Memorial Union, Harmon said.
Harmon heard praise and complaints about campaigning policies this year, but candidates have a right to free speech, and this way got more votes, she said.
Some candidates took laptops to students' houses downtown to get votes, which isn't against regulations, Wright said. She didn't see the point of this because of problems accessing the Internet, rain and annoyed residents. She wouldn't comment on which candidates went door to door.
A diverse candidate pool boosted the amount of students who heard about and met the candidates, Harmon said.
She helped get 27 more student organizations on the ballot to receive revenue sharing compared to 54 last year. Group members encouraged friends to vote and allot money for their organizations. This year $39,950 went to student organizations, almost an $18,000 increase from last year.
Harmon's planning and marketing had a big impact on voter turnout, Wright said.
Fifteen students polled on campus said they voted and cited reasons such as civic responsibility and friendship with candidates. Thirteen others said they didn't vote because they didn't know the candidates, forgot about the election or just didn't care.
Last year Osazee Edebiri, the current A.S. president, had more laptops than any candidate this year, he said.
"I've seen students tell candidates 'no' and go to another candidate's polling booth," Edebiri said.
Because it's a presidential election year, there's a trend of more college students turning out to vote, he said.
Even though the voting period was longer this year, 66 hours compared to 18 hours last year, Edebiri and others in the Government Affairs Office noticed an increase during day one when voting opened at 8 a.m., Edebiri said.
"Three hundred people voted before 9 a.m. that day," he said. "I was one of those people."
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