With 82 percent of UCLA students voting for defeated
presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, according to a Daily Bruin
exit poll, many students on Wednesday faced the reality of another
four years with a president they do not support.
“The result is disheartening,” said Erin Ralyea, a
second-year French student.
The under-30 youth voting bloc made up 17 percent of the total
vote and totaled 21 million ““ up 4.6 million from the 2000
election.
Daniel Walter, a first-year undeclared student, questions the
sustainability of the increased political participation of
youth.
“Things like the Vote or Die campaign just made a lot of
people vote because it was cool, not because they truly cared about
the issues,” Walter said.
The percentage of eligible youth who voted increased from 42.3
percent in the 2000 election to 51.6 percent in Tuesday’s
election.
Walter, who spent his summer going to door-to-door campaigning
for Kerry, feels frustrated that his work has “gone down the
drain.” But he isn’t writing off future political
participation.
“Just because your candidate loses isn’t a reason to
give up,” he said.
UCLA students voted more liberal than young people across the
country. Though youth aged 18-30 was the only demographic for whom
the majority voted for Kerry, national youth support for Kerry was
considerably lower, with 54 percent Kerry and 45 percent for
President Bush.
But the disappointment felt by some students at UCLA was present
at several other University of California campuses.
Daniel Davis, a second-year UC Berkeley computer science
student, said there was a feeling of general disgust at the
election results from students at Berkeley.
“Students feel as if they did everything they were
supposed to and it didn’t work,” he said. According to
a Daily Cal poll, students at Berkeley voted 86 percent for Kerry
and only 8.6 percent for Bush.
“(Students here) find a deep contrast between Middle
America and themselves,” he added.
Similar sentiments of disappointment were reported across the
San Diego and Santa Barbara campuses.
Professor Rebecca Klatch of the UCSD sociology department said
she detected a changing mood in students in the past years toward
increased political participation.
The base of political movements has come from students in the
past decades, Klatch said.
“Young people are optimistic,” she added, which may
spur political participation.
Many UCLA students have vowed to continue their participation in
the political process.
“The results are not going to stop me from going out and
voting again,” said third-year psychology student Grace
Kim.
In the meantime, many students at UCLA fail to see hope in the
next four years.
“No one I’ve talked to is happy,” Kim
said.