With five days left until the election, the Union conducted a poll last week to determine how EC students are responding to Tuesday’s presidential elections.

Students were polled on whether they were registered and who their choice for president is.

With less than a week remaining, there were 21 percent of the registered voters are still undecided.

For undecided voters, most students feel like the election is between two bad candidates.

“I don’t care for either candidate, but both have good points in the debates shown recently,” Lisa Replogle, liberal studies major, said.

Others feel that they just haven’t had time to find their candidate.

“Neither has yet to convince me; I still need to research,” Rusty Scrivens, computer science major, said.

With some nationwide polls giving President Bush a single-digit lead, EC is opposite.

Of registered voters, only 17 percent of students polled on campus are in support of the current president.

The majority or the Bush supporters like his leadership and the president’s ability to protect the nation.

“He has needed to deal with difficult situations and has done well to protect the country. He also is honest with our nation,” Saul Wertheim, web page design major, said.

“I may disagree with some of his ideas but I feel that he will better protect this country than others,” Devin Pozo, sociology major, said.

Because the war is such a major issue this election year, Bush supporters believe that he should be allowed to finish what he started.

“We should not be changing presidents in the middle of a war and economic crisis,” Karen Davis, speech communications major, said. “He meets my needs and expectations as a citizen.”

“He deserves more time to finish what he started,” Lindsay Osborn, psychology major, said. “That and I don’t think that John Kerry would make a good commander in chief.”

“I believe George W. Bush will offer all the support he can to our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and is, in my opinion, best suited for the ‘war on terrorism’ and the war in Iraq,” Daniel Ingold, undecided, said.

California is known as a Democratic state and the EC campus is no different.

Sixty-three percent of students feel that Kerry would make a better president than Bush.

Some Kerry supporters just believe he is not as bad a candidate as Bush.

Six people of those who are voting for Kerry stated that he is the “lesser of two evils” as a reason why they are voting for him.

“He is not so much well-suited as that he is more well-suited than Bush,” Shazia Hag, history major, said.

“He is better than Bush, but not the best. I wish we could do better,” Andia Bayandar, sociology major, said

Some Kerry supporters want a new president to replace the current president who, they believe, hasn’t done his job well enough.

“I don’t like what Bush has done and would like someone else in office who has a different outlook on the way our country should be run,” Jason Riney, architect major, said.

“Kerry will assist the poor people in this nation,” Pam Landix II, political science major, said.

“My family fell within the low-income bracket and Bush’s supposed tax break did not reach ‘da hood,'” Landix said.

Registered voters may call (800) 815-2666, to find their local election office.

Editor’s note: This article is part of a series that will be focusing on the 2004 elections.