As the Friday ballot release approaches, Undergraduate Students Association Council candidates have been campaigning through social media and in person on Bruin Walk.

The USA Election Board permitted candidates to begin on-campus campaigning for the upcoming USAC election April 14. It also assigned specific hours when candidates could hand out leaflets on campus.

On-campus leafleting will resume Monday and be permitted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays until May 15 – the day before voting closes.

Brett Berndt, a candidate for USAC general representative, said he finds it difficult to get the attention of students when campaigning on Bruin Walk, particularly because the area is small but often crowded.

Berndt, a third-year political science student, added that he found students passing by to be already overwhelmed by another event in Bruin Plaza the day he was leafleting, where social media personality Emma Chamberlain was distributing coffee.

“They (students) don’t want to be yelled at or given stuff, and so I think it’s not effective to just give people flyers,” he said. “There needs to be a reason to engage, and what I’ve been doing since I, unfortunately, don’t have stuff to give to people is just trying to play music. I have my face on a big poster and just trying to get eyes rather than giving people flyers, and I think that’s been effective for me.”

Nora Omwami, a campaign manager for general representative candidate Jayha Buhs-Jackson, said the campaigning process is valuable despite some difficulties with getting students’ attention.

“You do have to put yourself out there, which is a little bit of a struggle because I know I definitely walk past people on Bruin Walk,” said Omwami, a first-year economics student. “It does work, especially because student government is very important because it can affect student life on campus.”

Buhs-Jackson’s campaign graphic designer, Hanae Noirbent, said she believes in-person campaigning has led to increased engagement on Buhs-Jackson’s campaign Instagram.

“I think it’s (leafleting is) pretty effective,” said Noirbent, a second-year history student. “It’s building some good relations because some people do ask us genuinely what the platforms are about.”

Annalise Koehmstedt, a member of internal vice president candidate Tommy Contreras’ outreach team, said leafleting can also communicate a candidate’s passion to students.

“I definitely do think it’s effective, even though flyers get thrown away within the first five minutes. It’s getting your face and name out there,” said Koehmstedt, a first-year business economics student.

However, Lia Shery, a first-year biology student, said she found candidates’ flyering to be ineffective, adding that she would be less likely to vote for a candidate that tried to hand her a flyer on Bruin Walk.

“I don’t think it’s effective, personally,” she said. “I feel like if you’re flyering me up when I’m on my way to class, then I will be less likely to want to vote for whatever comes up.”

Berndt said his on-campus campaigning has been focused on trying different methods to connect with students. He added that handing out cookies – rather than pieces of paper – was much more effective in engaging with students.

“The whole leafleting process so far has just been trying to find ways to engage with people,” Berndt said. “It’s effective if you have something to give or have a reason to engage with people, but I think just flyering is difficult. It’s kind of a hard campus to flyer for.”