Obama is campus favorite
By Peach Indravudh
Feb. 5, 2008 11:58 p.m.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., garnered the support of the UCLA student vote on Super Tuesday, with a majority voting for the Democratic candidate in the California presidential primaries.
The Daily Bruin conducted an exit poll Tuesday at each of the voting locations around the Westwood area. This sample has a margin of error of approximately 6 percent for students who voted for Democratic candidates and 18 percent for those who voted for Republicans.
The poll by The Bruin represents a random sample of 293 undergraduate and graduate students who voted near campus.
According to the results, Obama received 63 percent of the student vote, while Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., won 25 percent.
Republican candidates collected the least amount of votes, with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., receiving 5 percent.
“(Students are) more excited by (Obama) on a personal level. They are more engaged by him … (and) they were looking for change, and he invited that more than Hillary,” said Tim Groeling, assistant professor of communication studies.
But as of press time, Clinton led the California Democratic primary with 53 percent of the vote.
Susanne Lohmann, a political science professor, said that though Obama managed to gather the support of students, young voters still represent a small proportion of the overall number of people who participate in the voting process.
“Young people are just not into elections. People have been saying that young voter turnout has increased … but the turnout has been increasing for everyone this year,” Lohmann said.
She added that she attributes Clinton’s win to the fact that the senator has appealed to a voting bloc that actively came to out to participate in the primary.
“Students want to find someone who kind of inspires the young vote, creates an idealism,” Lohmann said.
“Young voters flock behind people like Obama … but they don’t turn out in high enough numbers to fulfill that promise,” she added.
Signifying the politically left leanings on campus, 57 percent of students considered themselves liberal, 31 percent moderate and 8 percent conservative.
When asked how closely students followed the election, with 0 representing “not at all” and 6 as “extremely,” the average response was 1.2, indicating that few students followed the election closely.
Results also indicate that students who voted for Democratic candidates were more satisfied with their decision than those who voted for Republican candidates.
Lohmann attributes this to a waning optimism of voters with regards to the Bush administration and the Iraq war, highlighting what she said she believes is the calling of voters for a change in party.
“The Democrats right now have two candidates that are quite inspiring, with the possibility of the first black president or the first woman president,” Lohmann said.
According to the results of the exit polls, students ranked the war in Iraq as the most important issue to consider in this campaign, with health care coming in as the second most important.
Beeta Baghoolizadeh, a second-year international development studies student who cast her vote for Obama in the primary elections, said she holds American foreign policy as one of the most significant issues in this presidential election cycle.
“I don’t approve with candidates haphazardly entering into wars with other countries. I look for a candidate who’s willing to have diplomatic ties with other countries even though we might not see eye to eye, (but) we’re willing to work with them,” Baghoolizadeh said.
With reports from Wafiqah Basrai and Tristan Reed, Bruin reporters.
