Voters flocked to their respective precincts yesterday to cast their ballots in the Super Tuesday presidential primary elections.
Super Tuesday is the start of a two week-long stretch consisting of a large number of primaries and caucuses across the country.
Kyle Kondik, director of communications at the University’s Center for Politics, said Super Tuesday is an extremely influential election day — approximately 60 percent of Republican delegates and close to 40 percent of Democrats will have been apportioned by the time the two week stretch ends on March 15.
The reason for the percentage discrepancy is because Democrats have “superdelegates,” which make up 15 percent of Democratic delegates, Kondik said. These superdelegates are not tied to primaries or caucuses and can vote for any candidate.
In Tuesday’s open primary, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won Virginia for the Democratic party with 64.3 percent of the vote, while Donald Trump won for the Republicans with 34.7 percent of the vote.
Kondik said Clinton and Trump were the favorites leading up to Tuesday’s election and predicted Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) would potentially finish a strong second in Virginia. Rubio placed second in the GOP primary with 31.9 percent of the vote.
As for the Democratic candidates, Kondik noted an advantage for Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT) within the University community, but accurately predicted Clinton would win.
Virginia has become an increasingly important state in the primary elections, and is a swing state in the general elections. Though Virginia has recently been trending more Democratic, Kondik said both Democrats and Republicans will vie for the win.
“I don’t think the primary really predicts anything for the general election,” Kondik said. “But it has become a pretty important state.”
Kondik said the diversity of Virginia, which includes parts of Appalachia, the white working class in Northern Virginia and major urban areas in Richmond and Hampton Roads, makes it microcosmic of the nation in general.
“It is a state that is generally reflective of the nation as a whole,” he said. “It was also very close to the general election results in both 2008 and 2012.”
“So far they have supported Clinton,” Kolkin said. “After the Super Tuesday primaries, the process really accelerates.”
At the University, students have participated actively in campaigning and encouraging their peers to vote.
Kelly Kaler, a first-year Batten graduate student, was able to become politically involved by heading a phone-a-thon at the University in support of Clinton. Kaler, who worked as a Fellow for the Clinton campaign last winter and volunteered with previous political campaigns, organized the phone bank for a Students for Hillary “week of action” campaign.
While Kaler said she recognizes not all students are politically inclined, she said the majority of students are politically engaged to some extent.
“In general, I find that U.Va. students are educated on and involved with political issues,” she said. “I think that it’s great to be involved politically, but it’s more important to be intentional about that and work for a candidate you believe in.”
Some students want to increase political activity among their peers. Rich Olszewski, a third-year Law student, has started a petition for the University to cancel classes on election days in order to increase democratic participation.
“The petition is an idea that came up during one of the U.Va. for Bernie Sanders meetings,” he said.
The group’s overall goal is to get students at the University to vote and emphasize the importance of voting on primary election days.
“In contrast with certain universities, we don’t have policies in place with that,” Olszewski said. “Getting days off, there are less restrictions on doing that.” He also stressed the importance of the University communicating to the student body the importance of voting.
While the polls in Virginia are open from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m., University students may be busy with midterms week, Clara Griff, a third-year College student and co-founder of Hoos for Hillary, said.
“People don’t make it a priority,” Griff said. “There is studying to be done, projects to be done.”
Fourth-year College student Nour Sulaiman, lead organizer for U.Va. for Bernie Sanders, said she believes the University should use its role as an educational institution to increase democratic participation among its students.
“There needs to be more of a campaign to get people to be aware of the requirements of the voting process,” Sulaiman said. “I was speaking to a third-year the other day that didn’t know how to register how to vote, didn’t know when to vote, wasn’t sure if she was registered. I hear these questions all the time. ‘Am I registered to vote? Where am I going to vote?’”
Chelsea Bryant, a first-year Law student and co-president of the Virginia Law Republicans, also said outreach is the most important factor in increasing participation.
“Many people aren’t aware of the deadlines to register to vote,” she said.
The Virginia Law Republicans are working with the Virginia Law Democrats in a bipartisan effort to motivate students to vote.
The student vote is of ever-increasing importance, Bryant said.
“Older voters generally vote more, but in 2008 and 2012 we saw that gap start to narrow,” she said.
Other student campaign groups did not return requests for comment.
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