A majority of Seton Hall students will support former Vice President Joe Biden in Tuesday’s upcoming presidential election, according to a Setonian poll.
Sixty-nine percent of the 287 students polled said they support Biden and Senator Kamala Harris’ run for the White House. Twenty-three percent supported President Donald Trump and Vice President Michael Pence’s ticket. The poll, which was conducted between Oct. 29 and Nov. 1 has a margin of error of ±5%.
2.79% of students said they support the Libertarian candidate, Jo Jorgensen and her running mate Spike Cohen, with 2.44% supporting other candidates.
A further 2.79% of students said they were still unsure who they would vote for at the time of the poll, or that they would not vote.
The most important issue for students was racial inequality, with 77.7% of students ranking the issue ‘very important.’ This was followed by COVID-19, which was rated as ‘very important’ by 76%. Healthcare, police policy, the environment, and Supreme Court appointments were all rated as ‘very important’ by between 60% and 70% of students. These issues were followed by immigration, the economy, foreign policy, and transportation and infrastructure, which were rated as less important.
Looking at data for each college within the University, the Stillman School of Business stands out as the reddest. 44.3% of Stillman respondents supported the Trump/Pence ticket, with just 39.3% supporting Biden/Harris.
One of the most Biden-leaning schools was the College of Communication and the Arts, 80% of which supported Biden, with only 11.1% supporting Trump.
In the largest school, the College of Arts and Sciences, 75.9% of respondents supported Biden, with 18.8% choosing Trump.
Upperclassmen tended to lean slightly more heavily toward Biden than freshmen and sophomores, with freshmen supporting Biden the least of any class (59.4%) and juniors supporting Biden the most strongly (75.4%).
The majority of respondents are registered to vote in New Jersey or another ‘reliably blue’ state. 13.9% of respondents are registered in swing states, with only a handful of students (5.5%) reporting that they will vote in ‘reliably red’ states.
The coronavirus pandemic has put early voting in the spotlight, and a majority of respondents reported that they have voted or will vote using an absentee ballot.
Among students who plan on voting, 86.2% said they have voted or plan to vote by mail, with 13.7% planning to vote in person.
Daniel O'Connor can be reached at daniel.oconnor1@student.shu.edu. Find him on Twitter @ItsDanOConnor.
