9:05 a.m.

Vice presidential candidate Benjamin M. Wikler '03 stands in front of the Science Center, waiting for volunteers. Sipping a cup of coffee, he is surprised to learn that other candidates' supporters were up and out by 7:30 a.m. He wouldn't really describe himself as a morning person, he says.

In the end, just one other person joins Wikler, and the two split up to blanket the Yard with the slick white flyers.

"Signs are great," Wikler says, carrying a stack of flyers, "but not so much the focus of our campaign."

Ten minutes in, Wikler quickly abandons the trusty masking tape method for a mini-stapler he bought at the Coop specifically for postering. When the mini-stapler malfunctions, Wikler is non-plussed.

"Todd's the technology guy," he shrugs, referring to his running mate Plants, an Eliot House user assistant.

While Wikler works out his stapler woes, Dreyfus is making his way from Pforzheimer House to Gnomon Copy on Mass. Ave. He too carries a stack of flyers advertising his candidacy--each poster sports a fuzzy logo, filched from the Web site of Dreyfus Mutual Funds, and a one-liner like "Read my lips" or "forty-four forty or fight."

He orders 50 copies of each in an array of colors. Though all of his opponents have been besieging the Yard with posters for a week, this morning is Dreyfus's first publicity run. But he says his late start will be to his advantage.