Bruins prefer Obama in polls
By Amber Bissell
Nov. 5, 2008 1:35 a.m.
Before the national news coverage called the new president-elect, UCLA students had already called theirs ““ Senator Barack Obama.
Data was gathered from over 800 Daily Bruin exit poll surveys on Tuesday. Participants were surveyed immediately after exiting their respective polling locations.
The results, with approximately 3 percent margin of error, showed overwhelming support for Obama with 83 percent of students voting for America’s first black president.
Although statewide support swung in favor of Proposition 8, which eliminates the rights of same-sex couples to marry, 81 percent of UCLA students voted against it, according to the exit polls.
One-fourth of voters also said that they received a significant portion of their election information from YouTube.com, although television debates were the top source.
42 percent of the student body largely identified themselves as “somewhat liberal” and 27 percent as “moderate,” echoing the more liberal ideology often found in universities.
Students reported that the state of the economy and the war were major influences in their presidential decision, which was divided across party lines.
Obama voters also cited same-sex marriage and health care as top influences in their votes, while these issues were fairly low priority for McCain voters (8 percent and 1 percent, respectively.) For McCain voters, principles and religion were dominant driving forces.
In addition, 46 percent of students who identified themselves as moderate or conservative appeared to vote against party lines, voting Obama for president and no on Proposition 8. The top influences for these students were the war and the current economic situation.
Science students were more influenced by the issue of abortion for their decisions. The influence of abortion trailed off in upperclassman, while the issue of health care jumped 8 percent between first- and fourth-year students.
Students receiving a significant amount of information on voting from their church were found to have different voting practices. For instance, they were more likely to vote yes on Proposition 8 than groups receiving information elsewhere.
The exit poll was conducted at five Westwood locations, including Rieber Hall, De Neve Hall, Hedrick Hall, 515 Landfair, and 947 Tiverton.
Every fifth voter to exit the polls was asked to complete a 12-question survey, including his or her vote for president, Propositions 2, 4 and 8 as well as respective reasons for voting.
The other questions focused on demographics, including gender, area of study and political ideology.
The survey results were analyzed by Matthew Kugizaki, a graduate student in statistics.
“The representation of student demographic is fairly strong,” Kugizaki said. “It is representative as far the breakdown between major, gender, etcetera, if excluding the out-of-state and absentee voters.”
He said he found that moderate voters were more apt to swing toward Obama than McCain.
Students who were absentee voters, older students who often live outside of these polling places and students who were registered outside of Los Angeles County were not included in the exit polls.
“Our results may be slightly skewed toward Obama,” Kugizaki said. “People outside of L.A. County and out-of-state students may be more likely to vote for McCain.”
This doesn’t greatly affect the general statement of study.
“This doesn’t minimize the fact that this campus is still very much in favor of Obama,” Kugizaki said. “A great many students will be toasting to these results.”
