If UAF voters had their way, John Kerry would be drafting his inaugural address, Tony Knowles would be booking a plane ticket for Washington, D.C., and the smell of marijuana would be wafting across campus, according to vote returns Friday.

In the university campus precinct, voters proved decidedly more liberal than their fellow Alaskans. Democrats Kerry and Knowles earned 56.4 percent and 63.9 percent in their respective races. Ballot Measure 2, which would have legalized marijuana, received a clear majority with 57.3 percent, although it failed statewide with 43.3 percent.

Republican President George W. Bush received just 32 percent of the campus vote, while Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski received only 26.4 percent. Statewide, Bush won with 61.7 percent of the vote and Murkowski 49.2 percent.

"The Republican agenda nationwide and the social conservative agenda nation wide are not representative of young peoples' priorities," said Jerry McBeath, a political scientist at UAF.

Republican support of traditional marriage, for example, tends not to be widely supported by college students. "Young people tend to take these issues less seriously than older people vested in their marriages, no matter how many times they marry," McBeath said.

Kristie Hilton, 26, chose Knowles because of his positions on education. "Anyone who backs schools is good with me." But that wasn't the only reason. "I didn't approve of how Murkowski was appointed," said Hilton, a biology major.

About 63 percent of Alaskans disapproved Gov. Frank Murkowski's decision to appoint his daughter to the Senate, according to CNN polls, and 55.1 percent of voters decided that senate vacancies should never again be filled that way by voting for Ballot Measure 4, which eliminated the governor's power to fill Senate vacancies. On campus, Ballot Measure 4 succeeded with 62.4 percent.

Jeremiah Dabney, a 24-year-old history major, rejected the anti-Murkowski sentiment. Although he said the way Murkowski got her job was "not really awesome," he was willing to vote for her to keep the "Stevens' team."

Initially, Josh Ernst, 23, thought he would vote that way also. "I was going to vote for Murkowski because of Stevens," the wildlife biology major said, but "I agree more with [Knowles's] ideas."

In the weeks leading up to the voter registration deadline, Democrats made concerted efforts to mobilize the college-age vote. Former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles's campaign and the UAF Democrats registering voters at UAF, and Knowles himself dropped-by UAF once in October.

Two weeks ago, the Knowles campaign kicked-off a last-ditch effort to mobilize youth voters with a tongue-in-cheek radio message touting Knowles as "George Bush's frat brother at Yale" along with getting kicked out of the Ivy League school.

In the ad, two teenagers discuss the Senate race in a cafeteria-setting. Knowles is "good on our issues," they say, fighting to increase Pell Grants, making student loans tax deductible and expand the UA Scholars program if elected.

Murkowski, on the other hand, never campaigned on campus and turned down a chance to debate at UAF in October. "I'd say that tends to be a Republican position," McBeath said, given the "hot bed" of liberal opposition at universities.

But given the campus's liberal atmosphere and Democrats' efforts, many observers expected Knowles to earn more votes from the college crowd than he did. "The Democrats certainly thought it was important," McBeath said, but added Knowles's age might have deterred some students from siding with him.

According to early October registration data, 55,288 Alaskans ages 18 to 24 were registered to vote, a 6.6 percent increase over the last year. Although most were unaffiliated or nonpartisan, registered Democrats jumped 9 percent from 4,974 to 5,468 party members, while Republicans only increased 0.8 percent from 9,170 to 9,246 young GOPers.

Nevertheless, all together that age group makes up only 11.8 percent of registered Alaskan voters. Of the 976 voters registered at the university campus precinct, only 37.1 percent voted for president, compared to 52.1 percent of all registered voters statewide

Young Alaskans voted remarkably like 45-59-year-old Alaskans, according to CNN exit polls. Statewide, voters ages 18 to 29 supported George W. Bush over John Kerry by 59 percent to 37 percent. Older voters chose Bush with 60 percent over Kerry, who received just 38 percent. Ralph Nader received 2 percent from both groups.

Nationally, 54 percent of 18 to 29 year olds voted for Kerry, according to CNN, the only age group to side with the Democratic senator from Massachusetts.

Alaskans ages 18 to 29 accounted for 21 percent of the state vote, a jump from 17 percent in 2000, according to CNN exit polls. That's considerably better than the national youth vote, where the college age group accounted for 17 percent, the same as 2000.

Absentee ballot counts were unavailable at press time.

Photo by Dave Lokken/ Sun Star
Voters cast their ballots Tuesday, Nov. 2 in the Wood Center.

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