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USAC election season begins Tuesday with a mandatory orientation for all candidates.

As a cardboard box filled with note cards with candidates’ names written on them was shaken vigorously, the candidates for the upcoming USAC election waited quietly, eyes fixed on the box, awaiting the selection of the first name to be listed on the election ballot.

After each name was pulled, the room stayed silent, save for when a member of the Bruin Liberation Movement was selected. Then the sounds of hushed celebration sounded from the man in the chicken suit in the back.

Candidates for the upcoming Undergraduate Students Association Council election congregated Tuesday night in the Kerckhoff Hall State Room for an orientation meeting, led by the USAC Election Board.

The orientation outlined rules and regulations for the upcoming election, and a lottery was conducted for placement of candidates’ signboards on campus and names on the ballot.

Candidates were also invited to sign on to a voluntary spending cap pledge, which limits spending to $600 for the president and $400 for other officers.

Student Power! (formerly known as Students First!), Future Front and several independent candidates signed on, while Bruin Liberation Movement and Bruins United did not, with the exception of Bruins United Facilities Commission candidate Joe Vardner.

Presidential candidate Jenny Wood, a member of Student Power! and current general representative to the council, said she believed campaigning should always be equitable, and that the slate’s position is that students should not be advantaged or disadvantaged by their economic status.

Wood said the spending cap was neither a restriction nor an advantage because the slate’s candidates were all qualified, and the purpose of the spending cap was to maintain equity among the candidates.

The Future Front slate also signed on to the spending cap. Megan Carney, the slate’s candidate for general representative, said she believed the spending cap was reasonable, and that it would not hurt the slate’s campaign.

“If anything, I think it will help us because we are trying to run an honest campaign. We really believe that in a political campaign all parties should be on equal fronts with each other,” she said.

Alex Gruenberg, the Bruins United candidate for president and current Financial Supports commissioner, disagreed, and did not sign on to the voluntary spending cap. “In my personal opinion there’s no purpose to signing on to an arbitrary spending cap,” he said. “We’re trying to reach 24,000 students. Spending money is a necessity.”

Gruenberg also questioned the honesty of those who did sign on.

“The money they report isn’t realistic. It’s inaccurate as to what they actually spend,” he said.

Joe Vardner, who is running for the spot of Facilities commissioner, and P.C. Zai, general representative candidate, were the only ones from the nine candidates fielded by Bruins United to sign on to the cap.

Bruin Liberation Movement candidates said their slate did not sign on to the spending cap because it would hurt what they called their “grassroots movement.”

Jake Strom, the slate’s presidential candidate who donned a chicken suit for the occasion, said he was willing to spend a few thousand dollars.

“I’ve been working a lot,” he said. “I want to invest it back in the school.”

But Alyssa Campos, the slate’s candidate for external vice president, said she only anticipated spending a few hundred dollars.

Both candidates running independently for Campus Events commissioner signed on to the voluntary spending cap, as well as independent candidates running unopposed. Jason Kaminsky and Nish Chari, who are independent candidates for Campus Events commissioner, said they did not think the cap would harm their campaign.