While national polls in the week before election day are showing an electorate divided almost exactly 50-50 between Republican candidate Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama, a Boiling Point poll showed that Shalhevet’s students are not as split as the rest of the nation.
Results from the Boiling Point’s Sept. 24 poll during Advisory indicated that students favored Mitt Romney, as 17 more students out of the 71 surveyed chose Romney. However, Obama and Romney both won 47 percent of the 1,495 voters polled in a nationwide Pew Research Center poll, conducted Oct. 24 – 28.
Shalhevet students supporting Romney cited Israel as a key reason.
“Due to the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama have been on bad terms,” said senior Daniel Schwartz, “and the economy is not as stable as it could have been, Shalhevet students, as proud American Jews, would vote Mitt Romney over Barack Obama.”
Other students felt the results have to do with the economic policies of the candidates.
“This school has a lot of people that are wealthy,” said freshman Boaz Willis. “Romney is for the wealthy people,”.
The other questions on the ballot students received measured their support for California propositions repealing the death penalty and raising taxes. Fifty-one students were in favor of abolishing the death penalty, while 22 were opposed. Thirty-five students were in favor of a tax increase, while 42 students opposed it.
“If someone is determined not productive to the society and committed a serious crime, the death penalty should be considered,” said freshman Joseph Schnitzer.
Senior Rachel Leah-Kenner disagrees.
“I do not support the death penalty,” she said. “I don’t believe that a person has the right to end the life of another person, even if that person is a murderer.”
While many students are interested in following the issues in this election, others are not well informed.
“I have no opinion on it,” said sophomore Ariella Vaakhil. “I don’t have enough knowledge on it.”
The real elections for registered citizens will be held on November 6, 2012. Just three of the polled students said they were eligible to vote and would cast their first ballots next month.
Co-Editor-in-Chief Colleen Bazak contributed to this story.
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