It’s been an intense three weeks for the Student Government candidates and a time when many students avoided Free Speech Alley and persistent pushcard handoffs. The runoff vote between “Leading the Way” and “StudentsFIRST” will be Tuesday on PAWS. Theo Williams, presidential candidate for the “Geauxing the Distance” campaign, said his campaign is now supporting the “StudentsFIRST” ticket. “We are also going to help in whatever way we can because we feel strongly that they’ll be the right people to be in the position,” Williams said. All “Geauxing the Distance” candidates are backing “StudentsFIRST,” and Williams said his issues were most similar to those of the Hudson-Borel ticket. “Leading the Way” candidates Brooksie Bonvillain and Chris Sellers won 40.9 percent (2,194 votes) of the student vote in last Tuesday’s election, and J Hudson and Dani Borel of “StudentsFIRST,” took 27.9 percent (1,493 votes).A total of 5,315 students voted in the election — only 19 percent of the University’s nearly 28,000 students — according to election results and numbers from the Office of  Budget and Planning.Voter turnout decreased from last year’s 30 percent. SG Vice President Martina Scheuermann said she dealt with student apathy to SG elections last year when she was campaigning. “When you’re trying to campaign with students, I think the No. 1 thing is to engage students and not just give them a pushcard,” Scheuermann said. “We were explaining why it’s important to vote.”Many students said they forgot to vote, didn’t know how to vote or didn’t care. “I didn’t have any time,” said Matt Foval, general studies sophomore. “And I didn’t really know where to go.”Natasha Bingham, political science graduate student, said she didn’t vote because she didn’t know enough about the candidates to make an educated decision. “I’m in graduate school, and I didn’t take the time to figure out who was running,” Bingham said. But some students, like biological sciences junior Shaina Benoit, read the initiatives for each candidate. Abigail Schumacher-Benoit, international studies freshman, said she understands the importance of voting in SG elections. “I have a few friends involved in SG, and they’re always talking about the issues and how important they are,” Schumacher-Benoit said.—-Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]