By Yenny Sanchez and Larissa Klaus An exit poll of 64 student voters at Hofstra conducted after the final presidential debate, showed that a majority of students plan on voting for Donald Trump, who has a 4.6 percent lead over opponent Hillary Clinton.
Democrats who participated in the poll edged out Republicans by a little over 15 percent. Despite this, Trump is still the leading candidate among students. The discrepancy between projected opinions and party allegiance in the data shown is a striking one.
Senior Neil Carousso is a Trump supporter who has been commentating and covering the election. Carousso is surprised that the liberal university is leaning more towards the other side of the aisle.
“I think many young people register in the Democratic Party as a default because they may not know the issues, but are grown up in environments, cities, school and others, where they have an unsubstantiated belief that Republicans are racist, homophobic, against women’s rights and on and on. This is obviously a false, insulting narrative.”
Sophomore and registered Democrat Maria Santana is unsure why Trump is leading in the polls, but attributes it to “the large Republican population on Long Island,” and “parents being influences for their children who are in attendance at the school.”
The poll also showed that the economy was among the top three issues of importance among the Hofstra community, with immigration and social policy following.
Santana shared her views on the importance of the issues brought up. “I do believe that the economy is an incredibly important – if not the most important – issue, as we've been battling the major recession of 2008 for nearly a decade now,” she said.
Several students agree that Trump may be leading in this poll because of the effect that his campaign has on social media platforms. Through Twitter barrages and memes on Facebook, he has garnered support through a previously unexplored path.
Sean Bates, a Hofstra senior, said, “More people are enthused to be voting for Trump than for Hillary because he has everyone whipped up in a racist flurry but she doesn’t have as much enthusiasm behind her.”
Social media and political expert Kevin Wagner is the author of “Tweeting to Power.” In an interview, Wagner said that the campaigns are different because of the use of social media.
Some Hofstra students remain indecisive after the presidential debates, questioning the intentions of both Trump and Clinton. These voters consisted of only 5 percent of the poll.
Antonio Agcaoili is a junior and a registered Democrat. He noted his indecisiveness on the election. “Every time I find myself being able to stomach my pride and vote for Hillary Clinton we find out more and more of how horrible she is. However, Trump's base which holds a dangerous and un-American philosophy of demonizing everybody.”
Jack De Gilio is a junior and a registered Independent. Independents made up around 21 percent of the poll. De Gilio is also indecisive about his vote during this election cycle, saying, "In the past, I've usually supported the Democratic nominee, but as a first time voter, I'm not entirely sure. After watching the past three debates, I feel as though neither candidate has really convinced me that they are fit to run the country."