In the first 14 hours of the ASWSU election, students cast about half the total number of votes cast in the 2016 ASWSU election, the Election Board chair Kourtni Jefson said.

In last year’s election, 28 percent of the student body voted over a four-day period. Voting will only last two days this year, but because of the multiple avenues of voting, ASWSU Election Board member Matea Ped said the board is expecting at least as many votes as last year.

Polls for the ASWSU 2017 elections opened online on Tuesday at midnight, and Election Board members set up voting booths around campus starting Tuesday morning.

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The voting stations consist of two pop-up cardboard privacy partitions on either side of a table overflowing with “I voted” paraphernalia. Students cast their votes anonymously, and can pick up free election merchandise afterward.

Ped managed a voting booth on the first floor of the CUB. She said the reaction from students so far has been good.

According to the ASWSU bylaws, board members are not allowed to support or promote any candidate running in the election.

“We don’t talk to students about the candidates,” Ped said.

Board members set up voting booths in dining halls across campus Tuesday, hoping to attract new voters.

“Hopefully,” Ped said, “when students come in to eat, they’ll cast their vote.”

Stormy winter weather did not keep the presidential candidates from spending the last day before the election campaigning on the Glenn Terrell Mall on Tuesday.

ASWSU presidential candidate Zachary Anders cooked pancakes on a skillet as it snowed yesterday. He said his campaign’s exposure has been very good over the past couple days.

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In order to obtain the required permits for this campaigning event, Anders had to file a permit with Environmental Health and Safety. This temporary permit with the university allowed Anders to serve food on the mall.

Anders said a few people went to the CUB and complained about him serving pancakes. The CUB made copies of the permits, he said, to show the campaign was not in violation of any WSU rules or ASWSU bylaws.

At the corner of the mall and Library Road, Jordan Frost, Anders’s opponent, was also campaigning.

Frost said he feels like his campaign has been making a good impression on voters.

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“I really do feel like we’ve connected with a lot of the student body,” he said.

Frost said he and his campaign workers have been campaigning outside dining halls over the past couple days. They have done the same outside the Student Recreation Center and bus stops, he said, handing out water bottles and granola bars while telling people to vote.