2008 Woodie Awards
Rollins College Campus Tracking Poll
John Ferreira
Issue date: 10/29/04 Section: Decision 2004
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The first question: If the election were held today, for whom would you vote? The second question: What issue was most important in deciding your vote? Democratic candidate John Kerry lead with forty four percent, Republican candidate George W. Bush followed with thirty nine percent, and Independent candidate Ralph Nader came in third with two percent. Thirteen percent of those polled answered they were still undecided, and under one percent said they would be voting for another candidate. The War on Terror polled as the most important issue at forty-two percent. The War on Iraq was the second most important issue with forty percent. The third most important issue was the environment that came in at eight percent. Other issues failed to get to the five percent mark, but bringing in many answers were the state of the economy and gay marriage.
John Kerry gained nine points from a poll that was taken in early October before the Presidential debates began. This shows that many Rollins students were swayed by Kerry's performances during a debate. Even though his lead of five points over his competitor is within the margin of error, the Kerry campaign seems to have picked up considerable traction here at Rollins. The poll in early October showed that twenty nine percent of Democrats remained undecided; it is possible that Kerry was able to convince those undecided Democrats to come aboard. This election has been hard, and it is more likely that people will vote with their party affiliation this year because the campaigns have been so partisan.
Meanwhile, for President Bush, the numbers remain pretty much the same. In the first Sandspur poll he was at forty-one percent, and this time he was at thirty nine percent, the margin of error. This leads one to believe the President didn't really lose much ground at Rollins, but that John Kerry made considerable progress in swaying voters. It seems that Bush was unable to sway undecided voters, which were polled at twenty two percent in the first poll, but whose numbers came down to thirteen percent. Most of those votes seem to have gone to Kerry. Nader was polled at two percent in the last poll and still is polled at two.
The issues poll brought in some interesting results. When asked what the most important issue was in deciding your vote, forty two percent said "The War on Terror" or "Terrorism", and forty percent said "Iraq" or "The War in Iraq". The first interesting thing about these answers is that Rollins students believe that the War on Terror and the War on Iraq are two different things.
Most interesting was how the issue decided which candidate the person would vote for. Kerry supporters most answered the "The War on Iraq" as the issue that was important in deciding their vote. The second most important issue was "The War on Terrorism". Kerry also had many voters who chose to vote for him because of the environment. In fact, all the voters who said that the environment and gay marriage are the most important issue for them will be voting for John Kerry. This is almost an exact inversion of Bush supporters, who said the most important issue is the War on Terror, and the second most important issue is the War in Iraq.