Independents to play important role in election
By Dylan Nguyen
Oct. 31, 2012 12:46 a.m.
As the election season draws to a close, candidates are making their final pleas to voters, especially to independent voters.
The Gallup poll, which is a political research and news organization, shows that presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are head to head, each with about 48 percent of the popular vote.
Over the last month, President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney engaged in a series of three presidential debates on issues ranging from foreign to domestic policy. The final debate was held last week.
Many student voters, especially those who identify as independents, said their votes were not swayed by the debates.
William Doan, a fourth-year business and economics student and independent voter, said he remained unphased by the debates. “I was sure for Obama since the first day he became president,” he said.
Zachary Chin, a second-year communication studies student and independent voter who intends to vote for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, also said he wasn’t swayed by either of the presidential candidates during the debate series.
“I’ve already made my decision against either main candidate since the beginning of June,” he said. “I think that the main candidates agree on the same issues that I really disagree on.”
More Californians registered without a party preference than ever before in 2012, the Bruin reported this month.
The number of independent voters in the state reached an all-time high of 21.3 percent in June, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
Students make up a large pool of these independent voters, with 41 percent of students registered as independents, according to independentvoting.org, a nonpartisan organization that analyzes trends among independent voters.
Mark Peterson, a professor of public policy, political science and law, said the increasing number of independent voters has been a trend since the 1960s because of a perceived distrust in the ability of political parties to resolve key issues.
He added that independents see the parties as very similar on some issues, which may make it harder for them to reach a decision on who to vote for.
Some independent voters on campus said the debates helped them reach a decision on how to vote.
“I was swayed by Obama because Romney was only attacking Obama and avoided giving solutions to the issues,” said Priscilla Silva, a first-year biology student who is also an independent voter.
Still, others said they felt the candidates had already addressed concerns by making clear their stances on social issues like same-sex marriage early on in the election season.
Marisol Hernandez, a third-year political science student who has not registered with a political party, decided she would vote for Obama before the debates because he favors same-sex marriage, a stance she agrees with.
According to Peterson, even though the impact of the debate series on students was minimal, Obama will carry the student vote, given his “strong” support for higher education funding.
