On Thursday, Oct. 25, RMU Sentry Media polled students and faculty members in a mock presidential election to gauge the political interest on-campus. In total, the poll received 162 ballots with Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney winning over Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Our mock election resulted in Romney triumphing over Obama by just five votes.  Romney received 75 votes and Obama received  70, showing that the RMU community is rather evenly divided. President Obama’s support on RMU’s campus has come down since 2008 when he held the top seat at 48.63 percent.

While 145 of students chose to vote either Republican or Democrat, some students chose to support one of the many other political candidates, or a public figures.

Libertarian Gary Johnson, who also healed a seat on our ballot, received 10 votes, triumphing over Justice Party write-in Rocky Anderson, who was only received one vote.

Mickey Mouse almost had his mouse ears handed to him, tying in votes received by  Steve, one of the beloved cashiers from Romo’s.

Both of them, however, finished above Big Bird, who despite gains in political fervor, was only able to muster a singular vote.

In addition to the presidential election poll, 121 of the 162 students also filled out our “issues survey” in which  participants ranked from one to five the issues that were most important to them in respect to the upcoming election. The issues listed on the ballot included foreign policy, the economy, same-sex marriage, abortion and gun control. The option “other” was also a choice, and those who chose it were asked to be specific.

Of the issues listed, the economy, which 65.29 percent chose as the most important issue, was overwhelming selected as the number one issue to those polled despite their party affiliation.

If the results of this mock election are any prediction of the results that are to come on Nov. 6,  it will likely be a very close race.