Unopposed Student Association presidential candidate Marlene Goldenberg may not move into President Ryan Kelly’s office just yet.

A male Syracuse University student, who remains unknown, has announced his write-in election campaign, according to a tip to The Daily Orange Tuesday. He is supposed to hold a press conference Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Schine Student Center atrium.

‘I’m surprised, but I think competition is good for the organization and it increases legitimacy, so I mean, I’m not going to stop anybody from running,’ Goldenberg said. ‘They obviously have that right, so I guess we’ll see how it goes.’

A write-in candidate must collect at least 100 votes to be eligible for office, according to SA election codes.

‘It’s just having people write their name in on the ballot,’ said SA Director of Board of Elections and Membership Alec Sim. ‘They have nothing to do with me. I have no clue who it is. They have totally circumscribed SA, and they’ve totally taken their own initiative to get on the ballot without going through SA.’

Running as a write-in candidate avoids the petition, security deposit and service prerequisite that requires presidential candidates to be involved in SA for at least six weeks before campaigning.

The new presidential candidate will not participate in SA’s debate Wednesday in Hendricks Chapel because he did not complete the formal campaign process.

Goldenberg said she plans to structure her debate a bit differently now that she has competition, but not make huge changes.

‘I was going to run the same campaign anyways,’ she said. ‘If I wasn’t going to have competition, then I would have to run just as hard to prove to people that I deserve the position.’

The formal process requires prospective presidents to collect at least 500 signatures from full-time undergraduates attending SU or State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. They are to be submitted in petition form to the SA office, along with the candidate’s contact information and $50 security deposit, according to SA election codes.

All petitions to enter the election were due Monday. At the deadline, Goldenberg was the only contender to submit a presidential petition to the BEM.

‘There are write-ins every year,’ Sim said. ‘I know last year people took it as a joke and wrote in Spider-Man or Superman, so it’s not a very (serious) common practice.’