According to CNN.com exit polls, North Carolina’s young voters accounted for 17 percent of the state’s vote. Voters age 18 to 27 overwhelmingly selected Obama as their candidate of choice by a margin of 73 to 27 percent over McCain.
“I’m pleased with the turnout, and am glad that the younger population realized the magnitude of this election, and chose to educate themselves enough to make a well-informed decision,” Brent Kitchen, a sophomore in engineering, said.
The exit polls surveyed 2,814 respondents from around the state.
“I don’t think that this is an accurate representation,” Graham Groseclose, a freshman in sport management, said. “That number is a very tiny number in relation to the actual population.”
Within the young voters, 71 percent of those ages 18 to 24 chose Obama while 73 percent of those ages 25 to 29 voted for the Democratic presidential candidate.
“I think it’s because a lot of the core values that Obama represents are what we as younger voters can identify with,” Adam Compton, a senior in agricultural business management, said. “Most students are not in a higher tax bracket.”
54 percent of N.C. voters were female, of which 55 percent voted for Obama. 54 percent of male voters selected McCain.
“My view is that men view a country’s strength as military and foreign policy might, whereas women view it as based on domestic matters,” Joshua Poteat, an undeclared sophomore, said.
Poteat also believes that the division among gender vote in the state can partially be attributed to what the parties have come to represent.
“In recent years, the Republican party has become the party of brute strength, whereas the Democratic party has shown more of a dainty caring about the working order of our country,” he said.
Many students, including Poteat, believe that these results indicate a new trend in election turnout.
“I think that this shows that the youth will show up if you give them equal attention as we have given our senior citizens,” he said. “If candidates appeal to what we like then the youth will show up to vote.”
Jannov Rusli, a senior in paper science and engineering, believes that the future remains promising.
“I think that it’s great that there was such a high turnout of young voters,” Rusli said. “This could mean that the new generations are more aware of the situations.”
