Twenty-four students at SRU were asked for their thoughts on the 2016 presidential election and whom they are voting for on Nov. 8.
A reporting group of communication majors interviewed the 24 students on Monday. Of the 24 students interviewed, a slight majority of 11 students favored Republican candidate Donald Trump while nine favored Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Four students said they were not voting in the election.
“I would vote for Trump because lately, we have been seeing on the news the real side of Hillary Clinton,” Jeremy Shybloski, junior, said. “I watched the last debate and I thought it was pretty awful. They both are constantly jumping down each other’s throats about what they believe in.”
Todd Dimlin, accounting major, said he is also voting for Trump.
“I personally don’t care for either of them,” Dimlin said. “I wish we had better candidates to choose from and we don’t. I don’t even know who Johnson and Stein are.”
Michael Costanzo, sophomore sports management major, said he is voting for Clinton in the election.
“Donald Trump is the most unqualified person to run for president,” Costanzo said. “He is a racist and has no viable plans for anything if he were to become president.”
Costanzo said he was previously a supporter of Bernie Sanders but, after doing more research, switched to supporting Hillary Clinton.
“She has the experience from being secretary of state, first lady and a senator,” Costanzo said. “She is the most qualified candidate in history.”
Some students interviewed said they were not voting at all. Zack Dusch, forensic chemistry major, said he would not be voting because he believes both presidential candidates are liars.
“Clinton lied about her emails and Trump basically lies about everything,” Dusch said. “I don’t feel comfortable voting for either of them.”
Joe Mactavish, senior information systems manager, said that regardless of who wins the election, America is in trouble. He is not voting because he believes the two main candidates have their own flaw.
“Hillary is a traitor and should be thrown in jail,” he said. “Trump is a great businessman but he’s far too immature, plus his foreign policy is awful.”
Although Mactavish is not voting, he doesn’t think it matters that his voice won’t be heard.
“We live in a country that makes it seem like average people can easily bring about change,” he said. “Corporations control our politics, country and the whole world.”
Krista Davis, senior social work major, said she is not looking forward to next week’s presidential election but will be voting for Clinton.
“I will be voting for Hillary because I despise Trump,” Davis said. “I would really like to vote for a non-major party candidate but then my vote won’t be counted. I guess Hillary is the lesser of two evils.”
Some students said they are still not sure whom they are voting for.
Communication majors Stephen Cukovich, Douglas Gilghrist, Connor Himich, Jordan Robertson, Chase Voltz and Daniel DiFabio conducted the interviews Monday for the Feature Journalism class. The responses from the various interviews were then selected and combined for this story.
