America was closely divided in several of Tuesday's races, but according to a Daily Princetonian poll, Princeton undergraduates were far from evenly split in local and national elections.
Betraying a Democratic leaning that many on campus might have predicted, 55 percent of the 1,151 students polled Monday night said they were planning to vote for Vice President Al Gore, as opposed to 26 percent who said they would vote for Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
College Republicans president Mike Piazza '01 said that while he was not surprised by the strong support for Gore he did find it interesting.
"I find it fascinating, while Princeton would be considered the most conservative Ivy, it is still exceedingly liberal," he said. "I would suggest that Princeton is a poor microcosm for America."
Ralph Nader '55 enjoyed 9 percent of Princeton students' support. Eight percent of students said they did not plan to vote. The rest were undecided or planned to vote for other candidates.
Courtney Weiner '01, president of Princeton College Democrats, said she was very pleased that such a large number of students planned to vote.
"That's great," she said. "Turnout was phenomenal."
Weiner said College Democrats mounted a large effort to register students to vote in Princeton. "We registered around 650 people," she said. "We did a lot of get-out-the-vote stuff. We e-mailed people, called people and made follow-up calls to make sure people voted."
Weiner and Piazza both said the clear liberal bent on campus was due at least in part to the fact that Democratic positions tend to appeal more to young people.
"Many Democrat ideals have this instant appeal," Piazza said. "People that have had more experience in life have a bit more distrust of government."
"I think part of it is age. We're at an age when people tend to be idealistic," Weiner said. "People really think social change can happen, and I think rightly so. And I think the Democratic party appeals to that."
Nationwide, young people tend to be more likely to support Democrats than Republicans.
Weiner attributed Princetonians' support for Nader to the same factors. "I think Nader has a certain appeal for college students," Weiner said.
"He's an alum, and he's here so much," Piazza added. "He's very accessible."
The vast majority of students — 76 percent — planned to vote at home and not in the Princeton area. Of those who were going to vote in Princeton, however, a strong 71 percent said they would vote for incumbent Democratic Congressman Rush Holt, a former assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Early this morning, Holt still held on to a slim 56 vote lead in the race, according to The Associated Press.
Twenty-four percent of undergraduates voting locally said they would support former Wilson School lecturer Dick Zimmer (R) over Holt, with 3 percent supporting other candidates and 2 percent undecided in the 12th District Congressional race.
Weiner said she believed student turnout was key in giving Holt his slim lead.
"He's made a pretty big effort on campus," Weiner said, adding that voting at Trinity Church, where most University students registered in Princeton voted, went overwhelmingly in Holt's favor.
"That's what we had expected," she said, "and what we had hoped for and one of the reasons we put so much effort into turning students out."
Students voting in New Jersey also backed former Goldman, Sachs & Co. chairman Jon Corzine in his bid for the Senate. Sixty-eight percent of respondents voting in New Jersey said they would vote for Corzine, while 28 percent planned to vote for his challenger, Republican Rep. Bob Franks.
"That's amazing to me," Piazza said. "Corzine seems to be like such a summarily despicable character. There's something almost old machine, Tammany Hall, about him. You'd think at a school like Princeton people would see through that."
Weiner said she believed Corzine might be able to connect with the ambitions and ideals of Princeton students because of his business background.
"You've got a lot of people heading to Wall Street here," she said. "Goldman, Sachs struck a chord."
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