Today marks the beginning of the voting process for ASUW elections, which continues through Wednesday. Students can vote for each of the eight positions of the ASUW board of directors, which will represent students for the 2009-10 school year.

For the past several weeks, candidates have campaigned diligently, utilizing outlets including posters, signs, Facebook and Twitter.

“Our focus, as a team, is to reach as many people as possible,” said Tunny Vann, who is running for director of community relations as part of the UW United ticket. “We are targeting areas that have not necessarily been targeted in the past. For us, it is all about getting out the vote and raising awareness about the elections. Whether this is done through fliers, tabling, buttons or other freebies, UW United plans on having a significant presence during voting week.”

UW United is a ticket consisting of eight candidates, each running for one of the eight positions on the board of directors. Even though eight of the candidates are campaigning on the same ticket, no distinction will be apparent on the ballot.

Gerald Corporal, the current ASUW director of community relations, is running independently for president in this year’s only contested race.

Until last week, the position of director of diversity efforts was also contested, but candidate Stephanie Adler dropped out of the race Friday citing personal reasons. While other candidates have declared their intent to run write-in campaigns, only nine candidates will appear on this year’s ballot, the lowest candidate turnout of any ASUW election.

Candidates say the next three days are the most important even though campaigning has been going on for weeks.

“The first three or four weeks of campaigning are pretty tough and exhausting, but all that intensity will be crammed into these three days of voting,” Corporal said.

Voting is being conducted online at vote.asuw.org. The Elections Administration Committee (EAC) will also be managing five polling stations on campus, where students can vote at computers provided by the EAC.

Candidates are prohibited from campaigning within 100 feet of polling stations. Alternatively, candidates can set up their own polling stations throughout campus, away from the EAC stations, which will allow them to continue campaigning and invite students to vote.

Corporal plans to use at least three independent polling stations for his campaign and plans to set them up in locations of heavy walking traffic, such as the HUB lawn.

“It helps that you’re allowed to talk to the candidates and encourage them to vote, as opposed to the EAC stations, where you have to be completely bipartisan,” Corporal said.

Candidates on the UW United ticket also plan to utilize independent stations.

“We plan on making voting as accessible as possible for all students,” said Alex Lark, chief campaign director for UW United. “We’re going to put them all over campus and outside of campus as well.”

Even though this year is the lowest candidate turnout the EAC has ever seen, it has not meant less work for those involved.

“The number of applicants definitely hasn’t changed our work ethic,” said Shauna Stadnik, EAC chair. “Everyone’s about legitimizing ASUW right now … so we’re not taking this opportunity for granted, we’re utilizing all of our resources.”

Voting will continue through Wednesday night. Results will be announced 7 p.m. Thursday on the second floor of the HUB.

Reach reporter Ivan Vukovic at news@dailyuw.com.