An informal, unscientific poll of 607 AU students conducted by The Eagle over the past two weeks showed a strong preference toward John F. Kerry, who is challenging President George W. Bush in tomorrow's election.
According to the poll, 75 percent of AU students who plan to vote or have cast absentee ballots support Kerry. Another 17 percent support Bush, and the rest support other candidates such as Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik and Green Party candidate David Cobb.
To conduct the poll, Eagle staff members randomly distributed questionnaires to students in academic buildings, the Mary Graydon Center, residence halls and other locations.
The poll's results are shown in the accompanying pie charts.
According to a nationwide poll done by Harvard University's Institute of Politics, college students across the country favor Kerry over Bush in this year's election.
The poll was conducted by Harvard University's Institute of Politics, which polls students' opinions every six months. The latest results were released Oct. 21.
The latest Harvard institute poll shows that Kerry's margin over Bush is about 13 points, 52 percent to 39 percent. However, this margin is higher in 14 battleground states, where Kerry had a 17-point advantage among likely voters, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
"I think college students are more liberal than the average population because their eyes are being opened to the whole world ... it's just a more idealistic, informed time in their lives," said Katherine Stump, a freshman in the School of Communication. "College students are less likely to take what they hear at face value and dig deeper, no matter what your political leanings."
Carlos Ramirez, a junior in the schools of Public Affairs and International Service, agreed to an extent. He referred to a former professor who once told him, "Everybody's a liberal until they get a mortgage."
Younger people have always tended to be more liberal and grow more conservative as they get older, said Ramirez, who supports Bush. He said that his parents are Republicans now but were very liberal when they were college-aged.
"College students are more welcoming toward change and more open to change, and that's what they see John Kerry as," Ramirez said. "He's not proposing anything new. He doesn't even know what he's proposing, in my opinion."
The Harvard institute conducted the poll by interviewing about 1,200 random students. While 45 percent think the country is moving in the wrong direction, 41 percent believe it is on the right track, the Chronicle reported.
"I would actually expect the numbers to be greater [in favor of Kerry]," said Garrett Lacaillade, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs.
The Harvard poll also shows half of students opposing the war, with 47 percent supporting it and 3 percent unsure, the Chronicle reported. When this poll was last conducted six months ago, 65 percent supported the war and 29 opposed it.
"College students see that there are more casualties and more kidnapping [in Iraq], and now the newest weapon scandal," Lacaillade said. "This would lead any intelligent college student to believe that we are on the wrong track."
The Eagle poll showed that 34 percent of students said that war and terrorism were the most important issues this election.
Civil liberties were next, with 27 percent saying this issue was most important.
The Harvard poll indicates that 34 percent of students consider themselves Democrats while 29 percent consider themselves Republicans. Past polls have shown that there were more independents than any other group. Now only 33 percent do not align themselves with a political party.
According to The Eagle's poll, 54 percent of respondents are registered Democrats and 16 percent are registered Republicans. Another 21 percent of AU students are not registered with a political party.
"Kids can identify more with the Democrats than the Republicans," Lacaillade said. "September 11th and the war on Iraq are the reason people seem to be thinking this is the most important election."
The Harvard poll also showed that 87 percent of students believe politics is important to their lives compared to 68 percent in 2000, the Chronicle reported.
In The Eagle poll, 13 percent of respondents were graduate or doctoral students. The graduate population at AU is 3,579, according to the AU Web site. The rest of the students were undergraduates. AU's under graduate population is 5,870.
-Eagle Staff Writer Rebecca Bellville contributed to this report.
