As the Associated Student Union’s election commenced on Monday with the candidates focused on making the best of running unopposed by reaching the minimum threshold of 100 votes for appointment.

Students can vote in the Student Lounge over the next two weeks.

ASU President Alex Walker-Griffin is running for re-election; ASU Senator Christopher Miller for vice president and ASU Senator Camilo Alberto-Cisneros for vice president of club affairs.

“We are trying to hit the threshold of 100 votes, but in a situation where 100 votes don’t occur we’re just going to move on,” Walker-Griffin said. “We are still going to fill into our positions. We use the 100-vote threshold just to show that there are students that are active and participating in the election.”

Per the ASU Bylaws, a candidate must be an ASU senator in good standing for at least one semester, have a GPA of 2.0 and not be on social or academic probation to be eligible to run for an executive position on the board.

The three candidates campaigned on campus bulletin boards, by word of mouth and on social media. The campaign period ended last Friday.

ASU Parliamentary Officer Jackie Ortiz, who also ran unopposed last year, said Student Life Coordinator Joel Nickelson-Shanks pushes them to meet the minimum number of votes and let students know what the ASU does.

The focus of the ASU has turned to using the election as a tool to recruit people to it and to better educate students on what the ASU does, Walker-Griffin said.

“I try to make it clear that the ASU isn’t a club,” he said. “It’s our student government. We want them to have an idea what we do and have them understand what we oversee.”

Voters will be required to input their student ID number into a laptop at the ASU table in the Student Lounge.

But because no one is running against anyone, the rules are less stringent and the election serves a larger purpose of bolstering the ASU’s diversity and its presence on campus.

“Yes, there is a lack of student participation here on campus,” Miller said. “We want to get them involved, but we also understand that it’s school and it’s stressful.”

Miller said he understands that ASU has “eyes on them” right now so they must make their presence felt on campus.

Even though Walker-Griffin will be returning to his post as ASU president, Alberto-Cisneros and Miller will be fresh faces in the executive positions.

“I think Alex has done a good job. He’s concerned about the bigger picture here because all the things he does in the state affect CCC and other colleges,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz said she sees Miller as a good addition to the executive branch even though he is a newer ASU senator. She also said that Alberto-Cisneros is ready to become treasurer of ASU but will need the right guidance to fulfill his role.

“Camilo definitely needs to be briefed on the duties of the treasurer seeing as how that’s one of the more technical positions because it deals with money,” Ortiz said.

Miller said he and the rest of the ASU will be using Senior Comet Day, on Thursday, to tap in to the newer generation of students.

“I’m going to use that day to show ASU’s presence on campus even though it will be mostly incoming high school students,” he said.