POLL SUGGESTS TIGHT PRESIDENTIAL RACE

One of the latest polls from UConn and The Hartford Courant displayed some interesting results regarding this season’s presidential election. While 46 percent of those polled plan to vote for Obama and 43 percent for Romney, 52 percent predict that Obama will win.

The poll, among other things, indicates that while the race is shaping up to be rather close, a majority of those polled felt that Obama will win. What’s key is that, should this sentiment of hopelessness continue for the Romney campaign, he may actually lose votes as voters give up.

In addition to having been asked who will win the election, those polled were also asked about the trustworthiness and representative abilities of each candidate. Voters currently feel that Obama represents the middle class and women better than Romney, by margins of 13 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

In addition, 37 percent responded with Romney when asked, “Which candidate is running the most negative campaign-- Mitt Romney or Barack Obama?”

It’s not certain which candidate will win the election quite yet, but 44 percent of the 1,186 randomly-selected likely voters named Obama the more trustworthy candidate. The survey’s margin of error in sampling was three percentage points, and the sampling was weighted by race, sex and education from the 2010 US Census.

“Many of my friends aren’t voting for Obama because they like him, but because they dislike him less than Romney,” said Wolfgang Gassman, a 1st-semester engineering major.

His peers are not alone. Many citizens either know who they want to vote for already, or simply aren’t planning to vote at all.

Allie Thaggard, a 1st-semester actuarial science major, is optimistic about the prospects of a close race.

“As long as Romney doesn’t make a fool of himself in the debates, he still has a shot at winning,” she said.

In addition to rating the candidates, the polls also explored public sentiment on the economy.

Michelle Yeagley, a 1st-semster physiology and neurobiology major, suggested that it will be a close race.

“I’m voting for Romney, which is surprising; I’m from Chicago,” she said.

Of course, President Obama is from Chicago, and to Michelle, “that says something.”

The poll comes from a partnership, started in September 2012, between UConn and the state’s biggest periodical. The partnership aims to explore the opinions of Connecticut residents on various aspects of life, particularly politics. This re-establishes collaboration between the two entities that existed in the past, with a new emphasis on “reliable, research-based opinion polls.”

The polls can be found at poll.uconn.edu.