Sanders, Rubio Win St. A's Straw Poll

In an Oct. 28, 2015, presidential primary straw poll of Saint Anselm College students, Bernie Sanders emerged as the leading Democratic candidate, with Marco Rubio edging Donald Trump for the Republican Party’s nomination, according to an press statement.

Sanders received more than 60 percent of Democratic votes cast in the mock election, with challenger Hillary Clinton showing about 35 percent of her party’s votes.

Rubio recorded nearly 27 percent of votes cast for Republican candidates; Trump received just over 26 percent of Republican votes.

Of total votes cast, Sanders received 28 percent, the greatest number of the 14 candidates in the two parties. Clinton tallied 16.38 percent of total votes. Rubio recorded 14.1 percent of all votes cast. Trump received 14.01 percent.

The mock election was held as national attention remains focused on New Hampshire, site of the first-in-the-nation primary and Saint Anselm College, where the New Hampshire Institute of Politics (NHIOP) serves as a political gathering place of all major contenders for the White House. To cast their votes, students placed a golden wooden egg in a bag marked with the logo of each particular candidate. Consistent with the large vote total for Sanders, a second decorated bag was required to accommodate that many more eggs.

The wooden egg is a tradition of Politics & Eggs, a traditional New Hampshire event series conducted by the New England Council and the NHIOP.

Turnout over daylong polling at the college’s Davison Dining Hall recorded 464 students, 24.4 percent of total student enrollment.

The straw poll was conducted by Brandon Pratt, class of 2018, for the Kevin B. Harrington Student Ambassador program of the NHIOP.

”Students at Saint Anselm have the unique opportunity to regularly interact with presidential candidates,” said Pratt. “This straw poll, and the wide spread of votes, shows just how important the youth vote will be to presidential candidates in the 2016 election cycle.”

Voting concluded at 7 p.m., prior to the Republican Party debate in Colorado. Earlier in the day, as polling continued elsewhere on campus, Hillary Clinton appeared at Saint Anselm College for “Politics & Eggs.”