Dartmouth students prefer former Senator Bill Bradley by far over any other presidential candidate according to a mock primary conducted by The Dartmouth last Thursday.
The Dartmouth sent BlitzMail ballots to 4,422 students on Thursday morning, and 774 students responded -- a poor voter turnout of only 17.5 percent. Replies were restricted to the one-day window, which, although it may have affected the turnout, more closely mirrors the actual New Hampshire primary which is being held today.
Democratic candidates received 490 votes, and Republican received 281. Three votes were cast for candidates not affiliated with either of the two major parties.
Of the Democratic votes, Bradley received an overwhelming majority -- 345 votes: 70.4 percent of students who voted Democratic and 44.6 percent overall.
Vice President Al Gore, who won the recent Iowa caucus convincingly, received 143 student votes -- 29.2 percent of students who voted Democratic.
Arizona Sen. John McCain clearly led the Republicans with 181 of the 281 votes, or 64.4 percent. Surprisingly, Bush who also recently won in Iowa, pulled in only 68 student votes, but a still respectable 24.2 percent of the Republicans.
Steve Forbes, who did unexpectedly well in Iowa, coming in second there, received only 13 student votes, or 4.6 percent of Republicans. In the student election, Forbes was surpassed by former United Nations Ambassador Alan Keyes by three votes. Keyes received 16, or 5.7 percent.
The student results closely reflect recent New Hampshire polls completed by the Rockefeller Center, showing McCain and Bradley leading their respective parties.
The results do differ greatly from Iowa, perhaps attributable to the fact that McCain and Bradley have concentrated their campaigns on New Hampshire.
McCain did not campaign in Iowa at all. Instead, he traveled much of New Hampshire, visiting the Dartmouth campus several times, including the night of the Iowa Caucus and the day before the New Hampshire primary.
Bush's poor showing may reflect the fact that he backed out of the Republican Town Meeting held at the College in October that showcased all of the other candidates.
Forbes, though he showed well in Iowa, has been popularly viewed by younger voters as stodgy and old which may have affected his showing in the student poll.
Gore, who has tried to shed a stiff image of his own, did remarkably poorly considering many recent national polls showing him as the clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination.
Like McCain, the Bradley campaign has also stopped at the College more than once in the past year. The strength of the Dartmouth student voter base for Bradley was evident at the Oct. 27, 1999 Democratic Town Meeting with hundreds waving signs and banners in support of the candidate.
