Most USF Students Vote Obama in Campus Straw Poll

With the elections just weeks away, the University of South Florida recently held a straw poll to see which candidate students favored. Do the results surprise you, Lutz? Let us know in the comments section.

Here's what USF's media release said: 

Sixty-three percent of the University of South Florida students voting in Monday’s campus straw poll favored  President Barack Obama’s reelection bid, just a slight 1 percentage drop from the level of support in 2008. 

Republican Mitt Romney was the choice of 30 percent of the USF students, with lesser known candidates rounding out the field with single digit percentages.

“College students still align solidly with President Obama, a trend that tracks with national polls,” said USF Political Science Professor Susan MacManus. The challenge for the President is getting them to turnout on election day.”

The event was sponsored by the campus political honor society Pi Sigma Alpha, USF’s Honors College and Student Government.  

A total number of 1,645 ballots were cast in the straw poll, held at six locations around campus. In 2008 on the same poll Obama got 64 percent.

Heaven Hale, a USF Student  and member of Pi Sigma Alpha said: “The turnout was much higher than I expected. It surprises me that President Obama’s numbers are almost as high as 2008. I thought he would have had more of a drop off.”

The results on major questions in the straw poll were:

President-

Romney:  30%

Obama:  63%

Others: Gary Johnson, 3%; Jill Stein, 2%; all others, 2%

Senate-

Mack:  30%

Nelson:  60%

Others: 10%

Amendment 6-       

Yes:  29%

No:  49%

Don’t know enough about it yet:  22%

Amendment 8-

Yes:  56%

No:  22 %

Don’t know enough about it yet:  22%

Amendment 12-

Yes:  35%

No:  16%

Don’t know enough about it yet:  49%

Which of the following issues is most important to you in selecting who to vote for in 2012?

Economy/Jobs:  45%

Education:  31%

Health Care:  12%

Government Corruption:  7%

Foreign Policy:  5%

Party Registration:

Democrats: 40%

Republicans: 25%

Independents: 23%

Others: 12% 

Polling in the election-year tradition was conducted from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at six locations on campus: the Marshall Student Center; the library; Juniper-Poplar residence hall; Cooper Hall; and the colleges of Business and Engineering.