Although John McCain won Utah, Barack Obama made inroads with the state’s young voters.
Many students said they agree the United States needs change and that’s why they voted for Obama.
Zach Rusk, a senior in psychology, said he was equally displeased with both presidential candidates this election. Rusk preferred Sen. McCain’s economic policies, but ended up voting for Obama.
“I strongly believe in the phenomenon that “change is good,’ thus Obama was the way to go for me,” Rusk said.
Rusk was one of many young Obama voters in Utah, said Kelly Patterson, a political science professor and director of Brigham Young University’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. Patterson, who runs the top exit polling program in the state, is still calculating the statistics from Nov. 4, but so far has found that younger voters were more likely to vote for Obama than any other age group.
“It was truly a youth vote,” Patterson said. “In the presidential race, (Obama) did much better among the younger cohort than the older.”
In the 18 to 24 age demographic, 44.5 percent of voters went for Obama, and 31.7 percent of the 65-and-older age group voted for him, according to exit polling conducted by BYU. The overwhelming majority of those in the 35-to-64 age group voted for McCain.
Patterson said this trend was unique to the presidential race.
“The big age difference shows up in the presidential vote,” Patterson said. “The (age) differences are much smaller in the other races. In fact, the age difference almost disappears in all the other races.”
As an example, Patterson cited the race for Utah attorney general, in which 25.8 percent of voters ages 18 to 24, picked Democrat Jean Welch Hill for the spot and 25.5 percent of voters ages 65 and older also voted for Hill.
Becky Mackelprang, a sophomore in biology, said she has high hopes for Obama as president of the United States.
“This was an incredibly important election for the country and for the world,” Mackelprang said. “It’s going to help change the world’s perceptions of the U.S. and get this country back on track. I would have voted regardless, but the importance of the election is what made me really excited about it.”
Overall, Utah’s popular vote went to McCain by a large margin with 62.87 percent. However, compared to President Bush’s 71.5 percent victory in Utah during the 2004 presidential election, McCain lost some of the previously Republican votes. Democratic Sen. John Kerry won 26 percent of the Utah vote in 2004. When compared to Obama’s recent showing, Kerry carried fewer votes by 18.5 percentage points. According to Patterson’s data,
Obama might have gained that percentage mostly from Utah’s young adults, ages 18 to 34.