The sound of flyers and posters being plastered on countless columns of the school fills the fall air, once again signaling the time of year when Diamond Bar High School students elect USB Executive Board officers.

After a runoff vote required after some positions ended in a tie, junior Hailey Shi was selected as USB president, and junior Christian Park, who was unopposed, as vice president. Other officers that were selected in the computerized voting were sophomore Angela Zhang as secretary, sophomore Austin Hyun as finance director, junior Rishil Pansuria as speaker of the House and sophomore Melody Lee as the IOC chairperson. A total of 1243 votes were submitted for the first election, and a total of 717 votes were submitted for the runoff.

Candidates this year used campaigning techniques such as forming Facebook groups, posting posters and flyers throughout school and distributing pens and highlighters with slogans to students.

They also used artistic appeal to resonate with students. Presidential winner Shi, for example, used her experience as an artist to appeal to students through the posters she created.

“Since I was the Art Commissioner two years ago, I have a lot of experience painting posters.  I try to connect with many students through Disney movies because it’s one of the few things that almost everyone recognizes,” Shi said via Facebook.

Meanwhile, junior IOC Representative candidate Kohei Obata used light blue to make his campaign and name more memorable to voters.

“The pens I handed out were blue. On most of my posters, my name was spelled in blue. My big posters were done in blue. I used a lot of blue so that people would associate that color with myself,” Obata said.

The candidates also acknowledged problems on campus. Shi observed the lack of school participation and spirit and the division of students into separate groups. She said she hopes to find a way to ameliorate this problem through mutual interests and activities.

Obata, as a president of a club himself, said he can make the process of communication between club presidents and IOC representatives much smoother.

New finance director Hyun said he hopes to satisfy concerns regarding USB spending and oversee the finances of each club.

“There is some false information going around about USB overspending or underspending, so I want to make all finances public so that everyone can be informed,” Hyun said.