Editor’s note: Between 5 and 6 p.m. last night, one hour before polls closed, we asked students walking around campus if they believe their vote counts and what they plan to do if their candidate lost.
Allyson Rosenthal – Plan II – freshman – Plano
Did you vote? yes
What will you do if your candidate loses the election?
Personally or to change the world?
personally?
I didn’t really think about it I hoped for a win, and then I’ll just try to … I don’t know
Brina Bui – Plan II and biology – sophomore – Houston
Did you vote? No
Do you have a preferred candidate?
You know, I’m not really sure if, I feel like I don’t know enough about each of the candidates to make an informed decision
Does it matter who wins?
Yearh, absolutely, well if I guess if I did pick a candidate it’d probably be like Romney but I don’t know if it’s because that was the environment I grew up in or that’s because I legitimately want him to win, but I think that choosing who’s president is extremely important, I just haven’t done enough research which is totally my fault.
What will you do if Romney loses?
Nothing (laughs), live my life.
Luc Nguyen – Chemistry – junior – Houston
Did you vote? Yeah, I voted
What will you do if your candidate loses?
Suck it up, maybe hope that the world doesn’t end
In your opinion, does it matter who wins?
Yeah, it does, if you look at their ideals and what they want to bring to the table, it’s very different, it does matter a lot who does win.
Harnavneet Kaur – Business Economics – senior – Bastrop
Did you vote? I did not.
Do you have a preferred candidate?
Not really, I guess, (pauses) Obama
What will you do if Obama loses?
Uhh, let’s see, at that point it’s nothing we can do, right? I mean at that point whoever wins is the winner, but hopefully next time when we have presidential elections again, I will vote for my candidate so I know that, I make sure they win, it’s like I made a change, I voted
Does it matter who wins?
I mean I think it does, right, I haven’t been keeping up with what their point of views are, but I think they are pretty different, I don’t know what their views are on abortion, but I know for sure Obama’s views on abortion, I agree with that. The other candidate, I have no idea about him, so I wouldn’t say anything about him
Chris Stevens – English – senior – Galveston
Did you vote? No I didn’t
Do you have a preferred candidate? I do
If your preferred candidate loses what will you do?
My preferred candidate is pretty much guaranteed to lose, I support a third party and not one of the two major parties as opposed to what i’m going to do, hope that people are going to take the initiative to seek out other ideologies that more accurately line up with their own personal ideologies and politics. I support them monetarily like i have or I’ll support them by voting for them, although it’s kind of a throw away vote, it’s kind of lining up ideologically with what they believe, as opposed to voting for the two parties, which really aren’t that different.
Does it matter who wins?
For white males, probably not, for minorities, they probably want Obama to win, I personally would like Obama to win over Romney, he’s the lesser of two evils, however morally I’m opposed to voting of the lesser of two evils because it’s still evil.
Noah Ledbetter – math – sophomore – Austin
Did you vote? I did not.
Do you have a preferred candidate?
I, sort of, it’s not one of the big two, I would say Gary Johnson, the libertarian person is who I would prefer.
So if your candidate, in this case, Gary Johnson loses, what will you do?
Literally nothing because there’s not a chance of him winning.
Does it matter who wins?
Not really, it’s kind of, I didn’t vote this time as a mistake, i just kind of ran out of time, and I have a class in fifteen minutes but I vote libertarian so it changes other political parties views on things, they realize more and more of their votes are switching to third parties, so they hav to change their platform to include views I care about. So I don’t really care what this president does, it’s not really going to affect me, but that’s not what I mean to say, it’s not going to…nevermind
Gabrielle Devilla – communication science and disorders – junior – Manila, Philippines
Did you vote?
I did not vote. I can’t because I’m not a US citizen, but if I am, I would.
What will you do if your preferred candidate loses?
I’d be disappointed in the choices that America made; however, I can’t really do anything about it. So, just roll with the punches, I guess.
Does it matter who wins?
I think so. Obviously people vote for whoever they want to win, for who’s beliefs they agree with. So I think it definitely matters who wins.
Joseph Gooch – nutritional sciences – junior – Dallas
Did you vote? Yes
What will you do if your candidate loses? Cry
Does it matter who wins?
Yeah, because I think my candidate will help the country move in the right direction.
Greg Seaver – American Studies – grad student – Bedford, New York
Did you vote? Yes
What will you do if your candidate loses?
I will probably read about it a good deal, talk to my family, commiserate, they generally have similar political views that I do. I don’t know. I haven’t thought things quite that far ahead yet. I don’t want to know.
Does it matter who wins?
Yeah it does. I’d prefer President Obama wins. He’s been in a lot of difficult situations. He’s had a lot of tough breaks over the past four years, I still think he’s by far the better leader for the country.
