With increased Democrat and Republican attention on Louisiana following the Super Tuesday presidential primaries and caucuses, political analysts may want to look at the University’s mock presidential primary results released Thursday.
The student vote favored Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for the general election in November. Sen. Obama garnered 33.5 percent of the total participating student vote, and Sen. McCain finished in second with 20.8 percent.
More than 7 percent of the student body participated in the online mock election Student Government sponsored Thursday, Jan. 31, and Friday, Feb. 1. Unlike Louisiana’s closed primary party, students were not restricted by party affiliation in their selection from a list of seven candidates. Students were also not limited to Democrat or Republican for political party affiliation and had the opportunity to choose from Independent, other or none.
Obama led the Democratic race with 76.7 percent of the vote. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., finished second with 21.8 percent. Former Sen. Mike Gravel, D-Alaska, received less than 2 percent of the vote.
Sen. McCain won the Republican race, garnering 37 percent of the vote. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee came in second with 22.4 percent. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas., came in a close third with 21.6 percent. Although he officially withdrew from the race Thursday, Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., came in last with 19 percent of the vote.
While Obama won the election with 33.5 percent of the total student vote, party affiliation results turned up a surprising twist. Of the participating student body, there were 45.7 percent declared Republicans, 26.7 percent designated Democrats, and 15.1 percent Independents. Less than 2 percent claimed they were “Other” and 11 percent had no party affiliation.
Sen. Drew Prestridge, chairman for the SG Governmental Relations Committee, helped coordinate the online election with SG and Computer Services. He said he was pleased with student participation, given the timeline for the voting window. He said he hopes the student participation in the political process foreshadows what will happen for the Louisiana presidential primary election on Feb. 9.
Interested students can find presidential candidate volunteers and supporters in Free Speech Alley today between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
—-Contact Natalie Messina at [email protected].