The night of Wichita State’s Student Government Association presidential forum, a user by the name of “coorslover” posted on the anonymous social networking app YikYak, hinting at a run for SGA president, with fellow user “nootnoot” as their vice president. The post consisted of an edited screenshot from The Sunflower’s instagram story with coorslover and nootnoot’s profile photos covering those of candidates Jia Wen Wang and Amy Nguyen, and captioning the photo was “it’s time, my brother.”
The two anonymous individuals would go on to receive almost 30 votes, 2% of the overall votes in the election.
After four days of relative inactivity around the topic, a “Happy Birthday to Me (write nootnoot and coorslover in for SGA elections)” sparked multiple posts from coorslover, nootnoot and many other users focused on the unusual write-in campaign. The post was quote-reposted by coorslover saying “yall know what to do.”
An anonymous post on YikYak featured a screenshot of a write-in vote for coorslover and nootnoot captioned “I did my part.”
User “aliceinchainslover” posted a photo of their write-in vote for coorslover and nootnoot captioned “Make sure you all exercise you(r) right to vote. There is only one way we as student(s) can make change and have our voices heard.”
Two days before the election, an anonymous post said “SGA poll worker here. The amount of votes for coorslover and noot noot is making campus ‘nervous.’”
One day before the polls closed, coorslover encouraged voters to keep voting, saying “at this point last year, the scott campaign started to lose traction. this is where me and noot noot need you the most! we strive to get the opportunity to represent you all.”
In the unofficial count of write-in votes, announced Wednesday, various iterations of the names coorslover and nootnoot accounted for 29 votes, making up 2% of votes cast. There were 108 total write-in votes (5.5% of total votes) for the presidential election.
Coorslover has since made a post following their loss, saying, “ELECTION UPDATE … ok so we lost.”
Due to YikYak basing itself on anonymous posting, The Sunflower was unable to directly reach out to coorslover and nootnoot and is also unable to provide the identities behind the users.
Coorslover and nootnoot are invited to email [email protected] if they would to talk about their campaign. Proof of being coorslover and/or nootnoot is required.
