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On Election Day, the Daily Bruin conducted exit polls at seven
polling places on campus and in Westwood, recording information
from 579 UCLA voters ““ and found that UCLA students’
voting patterns are not consistent with those of the state.
The exit poll, which has a 4.1 percent margin of error, was
conducted as voters left polling places with every fifth voter
questioned. The Daily Bruin asked students whom they picked for
governor and how they voted on Proposition 85, which failed to pass
but would have required minors to notify their parents or guardians
before getting an abortion.
On both of the issues, students weighed in differently than
Californians did as a whole.
The
results of the five-question survey showed 61 percent of UCLA
students supported Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil
Angelides, while 28.5 percent voted for Republican incumbent Gov.
Schwarzenegger, who won the election by a landslide.
And the margin by which UCLA students rejected Proposition 85
was much wider than the margin by which California voters did
““ 80.7 percent of students voted against Proposition 85,
while 19.2 percent of students supported the proposition.
Statewide, the proposition failed by an 8.4-percent margin.
Students were also asked to give their party affiliation; state
when they made their decision on how to vote; and describe how well
informed they felt.
As has traditionally been the case, UCLA students reported that
they identify as Democrats in much greater numbers than
Californians do ““ 11 percent of students identified
themselves as Republican, 55 percent as Democrats and 33 percent
belonged to another party or had no party affiliation.
Statewide,
42.48 percent of Californians are registered Democrats, 34.33
percent are Republicans, and no other party has more than two
percent of the registered population, according to the California
secretary of State’s office.
While the majority of Democratic and Republican students voted
for the gubernatorial candidate from their own party, there was
some cross-party voting ““ mostly by Democrats. Sixteen
percent of Democrats voted for Schwarzenegger and 6 percent of
Republicans voted for Angelides.
For some voters, the greatest emphasis was on Proposition
85.
Katie Keegan, a second-year political science and independent
study student, said she found the proposition to be very
important.
“I think a girl who’s getting an abortion
shouldn’t be pressured to tell her parents. … She
shouldn’t be pushed to unsafe measures, like doing it
herself,” Keegan said.
Overall, most students reported that they felt they were very
well or somewhat well informed. Only 10 percent responded they did
not feel informed, and students who were not affiliated with a
party were more likely to say they did not feel informed.
Amanjot Mangat, a fourth-year sociology student, said he was not
as well informed as he would have liked, because he lacked the time
to research the issues.