The coronavirus pandemic has changed most things about 2020, but what it has not changed is the 2020 presidential election.
Today, November 3, the United States is holding its 59th presidential election, between President Donald Trump (R) and former Vice President Joe Biden (D).
Students at Longwood have been active across campus promoting their preferred candidate, while also encouraging other students to exercise their right to vote. Midge Costello, secretary of the College Democrats, emphasized the importance of voting in this year’s election, due to the lower turnout seen in 2016.
“That’s not a good representation of the country, because if you don’t get everyone’s voice, you don’t have everyone’s ultimate opinion,” she said. “If you want the true opinion of the country, then you need everyone’s vote to be there.”
Costello added that this year she voted for former Vice President Joe Biden, as she is not happy with how the current president, Donald Trump, has been handling the country.
Royce Coleman, vice president of the College Republicans, also believes in the importance of exercising your right to vote, although he voted for incumbent President Donald Trump.
“The best way to have your voice heard is to go to the polls and vote,” Coleman said.
In order to gauge how the students at Longwood will vote, Rotunda Studios sent out a poll on Wednesday, October 28 for faculty, staff and students to participate in.
The poll was posted on social media and was sent to both the College Democrats and the College Republicans, in order to avoid bias. It was open for four days, and had 135 responses from students and faculty across campus.
There were four questions for respondents to answer, which included if they were a student or faculty member, what gender they identified as, what year students were and who they voted for in this year’s election.
The results showed that 54.8 percent, or 74 respondents, voted for former Vice President Joe Biden, while 39.3 percent, or 53 respondents, voted for President Donald Trump. Eight of the respondents did not vote for either candidate, with seven voting for Libertarian Jo Jorgensen, and one who chose not to vote.
When breaking down the results by gender, the poll showed that Joe Biden was more popular among females at Longwood, as he earned 61 percent of their votes, as opposed to 35 percent who voted for Donald Trump. In contrast, 50 percent of males voted for Donald Trump, while 40 percent voted for Joe Biden. The remaining 5.9 percent of respondents either voted for Jo Jorgensen or did not vote at all.
It is important to note that this poll was conducted on Longwood University’s campus in a nonbiased way, and this does not reflect the official results of the 2020 presidential election.
To learn more about voting in the 2020 election, go to vote.org.