By Hailey Heinz
Of a sampling of Northeastern students polled yesterday, Sen. John F. Kerry won a substantial majority of the votes.
Twenty-five students were polled as they left voting locations on Parker Street and Shawmut Avenue, located near campus. Of those surveyed, 21 students reported voting for Kerry, while the remaining four reported voting for Bush. Although a few students were enthusiastic about the candidates, many students said they felt lukewarm about both.
Meghan Loraditch, a sophomore international affairs major, said she voted for Bush because she had a pretty clear idea of what his presidency would bring.
“He’s the one I feel most comfortable with. It’s safer to pick the evil you know over the evil that you don’t know,” she said. “At least I know what Bush is going to do. Kerry could do anything, because he just keeps changing his mind.”
Although voting for Bush in Kerry’s liberal home state might seem futile, that didn’t deter the minority of faithful Bush supporters. Christin Lobdell, a senior psychology major, said being a Republican in Massachusetts can be tough.
“You don’t want to say you are going to vote for Bush,” Lobdell said. “It was a hard decision. I thought I was going to vote for Kerry for a while, but I stuck with Bush. I like to vote for myself; you just never know.”
A majority of students that voted for Kerry said they did so because of a dislike for Bush.
“I don’t like Bush. I don’t like his policies or what he has done,” said Laura Pilitis, a middler criminal justice major.
Some students arrived at the polls literally wearing their vote on their sleeve.
Rachel Kling, a sophomore criminal justice major, arrived at the polls dressed from head to foot in Kerry regalia. Her shirt was covered with pro-Kerry slogans written in marker, and she even sported a bumper sticker across her posterior.
“I think another four years of Bush would be disastrous and I think the war in Iraq is a sham,” she said.
For some students, this election was their first experience voting. Shana Healy, a sophomore criminal justice major who voted for Kerry, said she was impressed with the ease of voting.
“It was easier than I thought it would be. It took less than a minute; I don’t see why more people don’t do it,” she said.
– Staff writer Chris Sigmund contributed to this report.
