San Angelo LIVE! Survey: ASU Students Voice Their Choice for President

 

SAN ANGELO, TX- Angelo State University students gathered to watch the last presidential debate of the 2016 General Election last Wednesday, October 19, and with early voting starting today, many of these students have expressed a strong desire to take part in this presidential election. After all, it has garnered a lot of attention.

Thus, LIVE! held a survey at the debate to see which presidential candidate ASU students align with going into early voting. Election Day is on Nov. 8. Of the 50 surveys handed out, 40 responded to the survey. Those students who picked their candidate also answered the following: 1) Explain why they are voting for the candidate; 2) How their candidate will improve the U.S.; and 3) Have the debates helped with their decision? The last question had the options "yes," "no," or "indifferent."

Here are the results:

 

CandidateVotes
Donald Trump (Republican)17
Hillary Clinton (Democrat)9
Gary Johnson (Libertarian)8
Other (Undecided, Not Voting) 6

Feedback: Why Students Support Their Candidate

The most consistent response for why Trump should be president was him being more relatable to the voter. This stemmed from him not having been elected into a political party before. Students also said their conservative values are more fitting to Trumps platform. A majority of students voting for Trump said he will improve U.S. border security and the overall economy.

Those voting for Clinton believe she has more experience and qualifications to take on the role of president. A few also believed she will have a direct influence on issues, like equality for women and improving the middle class in the U.S.

Students voting for Johnson said he provides a middle ground alternative to both Hillary and Trump. One survey response noted his immigration plan is more detailed than Clinton’s, and is drastically different then the “extreme” of having a wall be put in place at the border of Mexico and the U.S.

Those who put “other” are undecided, not voting, or have picked a write-in candidate for their choice.

Feedback: The Role of the Debates in This Outcome

For those students voting for Trump, more than three-fourths said the debate did help make their decision. All students, except one of the Hillary voters, felt the debates helped with making their choice. Johnson supporters had the most mixed results with three choosing yes, three choosing no, and two feeling indifferent. Of the voters who picked “other,” the majority felt indifferent about making their choice through the debates.

Overview of The Final Debate

Brianna Ray, sophomore at ASU, mentioned the third presidential debate had Republican candidate Donald Trump coming out in the lead.

“I think for the other debates, Hillary [Clinton] won, but it’s hard to compare both candidates given how different they both are [on the debate stage].”

She went on to explain that Clinton has a more composed speech and keeps a proper form when responding to questions, while Trump tends to be more relaxed in his speech. It was noted by Ray that Trump was more composed during the third debate when compared to the first two.

“From watching this, it was more noticeable that Clinton was starting to be less formal this time, and would interrupt Trump more often,” Ray said. “I don’t want either candidate to interrupt each other during the debates.”

President of ASU’s Pi Sigma Alpha Chapter, Nathan Pierre, hosted all three debates on campus. He voiced his thoughts on why it’s important for students to get involved this election through watching the debates.

“I think it’s really important for [students] to be informed, and not only know what their options are, but learn the current state of the election as well,” Pierre explained. “I am really happy that we had such a great turnout, and to not only watch the debate, but also learn and discuss one another's opinions.”

Again, early voting starts today, so click here to learn more about what voters need going to the polls. 

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I am always impressed by the students at ASU . About half of the students , more or less , attend ASU on some type of student aid . Scholarships , grants , etc. are the norm . If it were up to the conservatives , very few of these people would be in school .

ANY person in this great nation that says, "watching the debates have helped them to choose Trump" OBVIOUSLY has issues! You can vote for Trump because you don't agree with Clinton's stance, or are still crying about *Benghazi*, or any other reason; but if watching that moron ATTEMPT to debate ANY actual political topic made you think, "YES! That's who needs to run this country for the next 4 years!"........then your voting "rights" should be 100% revoked as well as any and all offspring you have or may eventually bring into this world! That man is a disaster waiting to happen; Trump brings World War III to American soil without a doubt! His ignorance combined with his arrogance are the perfect cocktail for disaster. **I've spent more time in Iraq than any of these children voting have been in school, and STILL say that Clinton is a better choice.

live, Mon, 10/24/2016 - 17:00

Chickenhawking is the practice of declaring your opinion better than all others because of military service (or worse, being a contractor).

None of the choices are good. But one thing should make any OIF vet pause about voting for Hillary: "Status of Forces Agreement." Hillary was snookered by Iran, now we and Hillary's ally Iran have ISIS (read Emma Sky's book for details). What a waste of treasure and blood. If that's not begging for WWIII, what is?

I appreciate your understanding of the term "chickenhawk".......however, Mr. Hyde, I was basing MY comment on the actual article. It was in response to the results taken from their poll after the final debate. IF you watched the debate you would understand that Trump appeared to have EASILY lost. Now, back to YOUR comment.......I wouldn't vote for either of these failures, but of the 2 there has to be a better; my military status was ONLY posted because of the exact point you made. If OIF veterans (and I'm not speaking on behalf of ANYONE other than myself) can pick Hillary as the Lesser of 2 evils in this situation, then maybe a few others could as well.
The best thing for us, as a country, would be to cancel the entire election and try again with better options!

live, Mon, 10/24/2016 - 18:20

The winner of the debates was Chris Wallace. Nonetheless, the reason Trump has buzz from the debates is because unlike Jeb! et al., Trump was willing to take the fight to those who would fail at Status of Forces Agreements and health care policy. None of the others had any fight in them. So, I'll take an amateur politician over a professional who won't fight. These kids are doing what every voter out there is doing -- they chose their side before the debates began and are trying to explain intellectually why they're saying their guy won. No debate is ever won on the issues. For it it was, Nixon would have won in 1960.

Concho, Mon, 10/24/2016 - 20:41

Technically, a chicken hawk is a person voicing strong support for military action but who actively avoids actual involvement in the conflict. Claiming Chris Wallace was the debate winner is a nice pivot. In all three debates Trump had some moments but sustained attention to details is obviously not his strong suit. All objective polls (not the seriously flawed online ones) show Trump lost all three debates. Joe, you are most likely dead on when you say most people went into the debate already having decided on their candidate. For those supporting Trump I can see sufficient evidence for them to believe he won. The same for Clinton supporters. For independents I think the decision was made based on the performance of each candidate. Again, the responsible polls say Clinton, despite having some rough spots, was the clear winner.

There is some concern on your presentation on the SOFA or lack of one. Bush signed the SOFA with Iraq requiring all US troops to be out of Iraq by 12/31/2008 later moved to 12/31/2011. Clinton may have been involved in negotiations but the failure to achieve one definitely falls back on the Iraq government. They wanted a SOFA far different from the ones we have with all other countries where we have one. The Iraq government wanted to be able to try our troops in their courts. That was a non-starter for our government.

As Devil Dog indicates, either Clinton or Trump will be the next president. Neither is a good fit but one is better -- certainly not the best -- to be president. Everything points to Clinton. At least that seems to be the comments coming from the Trump campaign. Even his surrogates are becoming more subdued on TV.

Trump is hard right and Clinton is left of center while not totally hard left. Based on issues and rhetoric brought forth during the campaign it really looks like a good time for the country to surface a qualified third party. A party that is centrist where the majority of the electorate seems to reside. And I am not talking about an improved Green Party or Libertarian Party.

live, Mon, 10/24/2016 - 21:06

Clinton is qualified if you ignore all of the legal transgressions that should have been referred to a grand jury. Couple that with her proposal to hike taxes $1.5 trillion "to save the economy", and you have not much to live for economically over the next 4 years--likely 8 years. I disagree that Trump is "hard right." Cruz was hardest right. Marco was harder right, and Trump is somewhere in the middle, likely left of Jeb! The complaint coming from the hard right is that Trump doesn't adhere to their conservative principles. Explain that.

 

live, Mon, 10/24/2016 - 21:13

We had 100,000 troops in their country and the Obama admin with Clinton the super-SecState couldn't persuade Iraq to sign the doc? Please. The problem was the balance of power between the Shia and Sunni. In the final election, Biden went over to Iraq and basically told the Sunnis to shut up and color. That took away some of our leverage to get Maliki to agree to a SoFA. But by then, Maliki was dating Iran and had leverage over the Obama admin, who really didn't want troops there anyway, so he used the Iraqi refusal to agree to the SoFA as a means to cut and run. All of this is explained more eloquently in Emma Sky's book. And if you don't agree with her history, I revert back to 'we had 100,000 troops in their country and we couldn't get a SoFA?'

Joe is so right on this subject and obviously knows more than these others. Hillary is an evil crook.

Concho, Tue, 10/25/2016 - 13:13

I think Henery Hawk (an actual chicken hawk) believes it would seem that might does not necessarily equal right. We had over a 100,000 troops in Iraq because we invaded the country. That decision can be considered right or wrong but it obviously does not entitle us to remain in the country once we returned sovereignty to them. At that point obtaining a SOFA required mutual agreement which did not come to pass. That can be portrayed as a failure just as the invasion can be portrayed as us overstepping based on faulty intelligence.

We will have to agree to disagree on the criminality of Clinton's actions. I think she did some imprudent things but defer to the criminal justice system on whether or not what was done was illegal. Maintaining a private server was not smart but given the apparent vulnerability of government systems it doesn't seem that was a problem. The classified nature of some email is subject to interpretation as well. The failure of anyone sending classified material without a bold heading announcing it as classified is curious.

I agree the economy is a serious concern. Claiming Trump would be the better candidate on that issue flies in the face of his demonstrated financial failures. He inherited money and even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and again. He has filed multiple bankruptcies, uses undocumented workers, refuses to pay on valid contracts, and has started multiple businesses that have failed. What confidence does that inspire? Some of Clinton's proposals raise questions but are not so out of line as to deny an improvement for the middle class. She appears capable of crossing party lines to obtain results which is a positive. Remember, it was her husband's administration with the last surplus.

Based on the current attitudes present in the country I do not see either Clinton or Trump as a two term president. If elected, Clinton will certainly try but I would hope that the Republican party has the ability to field a better, more centrist candidate. You are correct that Cruz is the ultimate far right but Trump, based on limited proposals presented with any depth, is not leaning toward the center. Bush, despite the last name, and Kasich are both bettered suited to maintain the base and draw in the center of the country. The biggest unknown in the next election is the influence of the millennials and how they embrace politics.

My comment should have been posted behind devil dogs not behind joe's . That being said , trump is aligning himself with the hate groups , those are the people who are fanatical about supporting him . People don't realize that there are so many haters in this country .Those are the same people who threaten to start a civil war , if the election does not turn out the way they want it to . For the most part most of this idle talk , but for some , it is a call to war . The problem is that these individuals do not choose to fight face to face with adult males , unless they out number their opponents . They will choose to fight with unarmed individuals . The most horrific acts will be against innocents , as was the cowardly act in oklahoma , the wholesale slaughter of innocent children . That is how these cowards choose to fight . Those who cannot remember history are dammed to repeat it . The nazis are thriving in America , trump is a puppet for these savages as well as a puppet for putin , he is deep in debt to the russians . I dare you to prove to me other wise .

You mean like BLM who beat people and cops, and Paid Trump rally infiltrators who hurt people and cops, or people like Joe Biden who would like to beat Trump behind the shed or Robert Deniro who wanted to punch Trump in the face. Yea, Dems are non violent!

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