Voters of differing genders and ethnicities made very different decisions in the Technician‘s mock election, as its results show.
Of the 2,189 students, faculty and staff that voted, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama defeated Republican rival John McCain 52.8 percent to 43.6 percent.
Race and gender may be big factors in the upcoming presidential election, as Obama is the first black man to become a major party’s nominee and Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, is the first woman to vie for the vice presidency on a Republican ticket.
Of the voters who identified themselves as “white” on the Technician’s ballot, 47.5 percent voted for Obama, and 48.7 percent voted for McCain, leaving 3.7 percent for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr.
While Obama lost the “white” vote, overwhelming majorities among minority candidates gave him the overall lead, with the highest being those who identified as “black.” Ninety-three percent of black voters sided with Obama.
President
While black voters gave Obama the highest percentages of support, Hispanic voters also overwhelmingly supported the Democratic candidate, giving him 75 percent of their votes.
None of the 75 Asian voters voted for the Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, though only five minority-group voters did.
Male and female voters supported Obama, but males did so by a smaller margin, as he led the female vote by 12 percent.
Males also were more likely to vote for Barr, as he captured 5 percent of the male vote, compared to the female’s 1 percent.
U.S. Senate
The U.S. Senate race is one of the few between two female candidates.
Women again voted for the democrat, this time being Kay Hagan, and Men supported republican Elizabeth Dole, but by a smaller margin.
Governor
The gubernatorial race between republican Pat McCrory and Democrat Bev Perdue had differing results between genders.
Men supported McCrory 56.3 percent to Perdue’s 36.1 percent, but women supported Perdue over McCrory by about 3 percentage points.
As for race, black voters overwhelmingly supported democrat Bev Perdue, 87 percent to 13 percent.
Also, 100 percent of the votes cast for libertarian Michael Munger came from white voters.
