A variety of reasons motivated Ohio University students to head to the polls Tuesday, but the war in Iraq and moral values were the most important issues to many students, regardless of the candidate they supported.
Freshman Andy Konermann, a business major from Westchester, stayed up on election night watching the returns until 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. The 19-year-old was elated when he finally knew President Bush had won.
I like the kind of person he is. His morals are more in line with mine
he said. I also like the way his foreign policy was responsive.
Like Konermann, Sandra Langmandel, a 27-year-old graduate student from Enterprise, Ala., also supported her candidate because of his morals. But her vote went to Sen. John Kerry.
He has very strong values Langmandel said. He would change things for the positive. We wouldn't be in Iraq as long. She said Bush would have stayed in Iraq forever.
Abortion was an issue that motivated freshman D.J. Bair, 19, to vote for Bush.
Hopefully abortions -except for rape -will be made illegal Bair said.
However, keeping abortions legal encouraged junior Trisha Range, 21, a biology/pre-medical major from Batavia, to vote for Kerry.
Bush will appoint conservative judges who will affect abortion ... and maybe overturn Roe v. Wade
the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, Range said.
In education
Kerry also recognized there were financial support issues for many students
Range said.
Kerry was promoting a policy that would allow college students to perform two years of community service in exchange for four years of paid college tuition.
Students were surprised at the outcome of the election, but for different reasons.
For a while
I thought Kerry was going to win
Bair said.
Unlike Bair's hometown of Cincinnati, located in Hamilton County, which voted for Bush, Bair said Athens is much more liberal. Athens has been my life for the past three months
he said.
Being around more pro-Kerry voters did not change his decision to vote for Bush, but it did make him believe Kerry would ultimately be victorious, he said.
Range said she was disappointed.
I knew the race would be close
but I thought young voters would turn the tide. I anticipated a lot more young voters. I guess I had more hope
she said.
Although young voters came out in higher numbers than in 2000, they only made up 17 percent of the total vote -the same as in 2000 -because of larger overall turnout.
