Election Poll

As the election is coming next week, it was very interesting to see which candidates ISU students were planning to vote for and if they plan on voting in the upcoming election. In a poll of 20 students, the results were very scattered and pretty surprising.

            The first question I asked people was if they planned on voting. It was very alarming to see how many people said they did not plan to vote next Tuesday.  7 out of 20 people said they were not registered and did not plan to vote in the election. Some people said they just forgot to register, while others said they just did not want to or did not know who to vote for. The rest of the people I asked did plan on voting and knew they wanted to vote for. The 13 people who planned on voting said it was very easy to register and that they knew where to go to vote.

It was very surprising to see how many people were not registered and did not plan on voting. I think it is very important to try to persuade more young people to vote and to educate them on the candidates and what they stand for. Some people did not have any idea about who they would vote for and the policies they stand for.

            My next question for the people who said that they voting was who they planned on voting for. The results were split and it was a very close margin between the two candidates.  Out of the 13 people who planned on voting, seven people planned to vote for Obama and six people planned to vote for Romney.  I thought it was interesting to see how close it was between the two candidates.  I was expecting a clear win from a candidate, but the results were very close. I think that the ISU campus is divided, and there is not one candidate that is far ahead of the other.

The most common issues that people thought were the most important were healthcare and education. There were diverse answers but the most common that most 15 out of 20 mentioned was the issues of healthcare and education which included student loans.  Students were basing their votes on who they thought had the best solutions to these problems.

My next question focused on where students got the information to base their decisions on the election and the two candidates. The majority, 14 out of 20 people said they think television is the most important and most watched source because of all of the news coverage and debates. The second source was the internet and social media sites. Many students said they followed Facebook posts and Twitter to get information about the election. One student said “I like watching the debates on TV while following it on Twitter”. Most students said they used multiple sources to get their information. It was very common for a student to say that they liked to watch coverage on TV while also being online or Facebook at the same time looking at other election related information. I think it is important to note how much of an impact social media is having on this election and I think that social media is only going to get bigger and more people are going to rely on it for information.

It will be very interesting to see the results of the election next week. Although I only talked to 20 people, I think it informed me a lot about who people are going to vote for and how they got the information they needed to make their decision. I also think it is important to try to find a way to reach the undecided or unknowledgeable people who do not want to vote so that they will vote in the next election.