By Elise Foley and Paul TakahashiThe Daily Northwestern

In Tuesday’s ASG elections, the candidates aren’t students’ only options.

Students can vote “No Confidence” or write in outside people for each of the positions in the Associated Student Government election, in which three of four races are uncontested.

Should “No Confidence” win a race, the Senate is supposed to choose someone else to fill the positions, said Weinberg junior Ben Parr, a member of ASG’s Election Commission.

But, Parr said, if that happened, he or Election Commissioner Eric Parker would file an appeal for a more democratic selection process, likely a second campuswide election.

Parker, a Weinberg junior, said write-in candidates are eligible to win, but they’ve not been successful in past years.

Weinberg sophomore Micah Friedland is running a write-in campaign for the position of executive vice president.

Weinberg sophomore Matt Bogusz is the only one whose name will appear on the ballot for the position.

Aside from campaigning through Facebook, Friedland also printed fake money with his name and voting instructions, which he plans to distribute on campus, he said.

“Because my position (EVP) revolves around money, I decided to base my campaign around that, too,” Friedland said. “I make (money) rain, basically.”

Friedland said he planned to spend “as little as possible” on his campaign by using friends’ printers to create flyers. He said he wasn’t sure if he had to follow ASG election guidelines, which limit candidates to $100 on campaign spending, 1,000 flyers and one Web site. Other stipulations include chalk specifications and flyer sizes that must be ASG-approved.

“(All the candidates) have to follow the election guidelines,” Parker said. “If not, they could be impeached.”

Friedland said he’s wanted to run for some time, but he was home for Passover when the applications became available the first week of Spring Quarter.

Running as a write-in candidate was not intentional, Friedland said.

“If I was on the ballot I would be much happier – and it would be much easier,” Friedland said.

“I think I will win,” Friedland said. “I think we will get more people to vote than ever before. Even if I don’t win, I don’t think my opponent will get a majority.”

Most write-in candidates for ASG positions in past years have been jokes, such as Mother Russia or Dickie Humps.

Dickie Humps, a nickname given to Richard Humphrey, McCormick ’06, first appeared as a write-in candidate for academic vice president in the 2004 election.

In 2005, Dickie Humps beat two out of five candidates in the presidential election with 195 votes, or 6.5 percent of the total vote.

“Basically, some of my friends from Sargent (Hall) wrote me in as a candidate for a dorm election,” Humphrey said. “I got second place, and they wanted to see if they could do it at the ASG level.”

Dickie Humps placed second in last year’s uncontested ASG presidential race with 316 votes, or 10.6 percent of the total vote.

“I definitely couldn’t have fulfilled the position had I won,” Humphrey said. “I just think it’s pretty funny since I don’t have any deep feelings about ASG.”

Still, one write-in candidate last year said he was serious about his campaign.

“Write-in candidates are usually a joke,” said McCormick senior Jason Chin, who received 98 votes in his write-in campaign for ASG president last year. “Last year I was trying to run as a pseudo-serious, Nader-esque candidate.”

Chin said he ran primarily because the race was uncontested.

“It just wasn’t democratic,” Chin said.

Reach Elise Foley at [email protected]. Reach Paul Takahashi at [email protected].