Students sway the vote

Michelle Bachman, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney — all big names in the upcoming 2012 election, but how much do students actually know about these candidates?

When asked about how informed he thought his peers were about this term's Republican contenders, Raul Pelagio, a junior majoring in constitutional studies, said "Not very well at all."

Jared Wight, a junior majoring in economics, agreed.

"I haven't really formulated any opinions at this point. Right now I'm testing the waters," Wight said.

Wight said he thinks many people would vote for Romney because he is a Mormon, and Mormons constitute a large proportion of the Utah population. People will vote according to what they hear and identify with, rather than basing their opinions on facts they've sought out, Wight said.

If students are starving for information about Santorum, Gingrich or other presidential candidates, the first thing they should do is check out the candidates' Web pages, assistant professor of political science Damon Cann, a member of the North Logan city council, said.

Though Web pages may contain bias, since they are meant to persuade people to vote a certain way, they should give students a good base of information, Cann said.

Cann said one of the best ways to get immersed in politics is to form a habit of regularly checking out reputable news sources. Students don't need to spend hours each day poring over the latest word in politics to get a good grip on elections, he said, but checking reputable news sites is a good start.

Cann also said students should sign up for Twitter feeds from well-known news sources.

"It's not going to take a lot of time to consume 144 characters of information, but it will help you to know what's going on," Cann said.

Students should look at a variety news outlets to avoid a biased view of candidates, Pelagio said. That doesn't mean looking at the same ideology-oriented pundits like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, he said.

"You'd be surprised how open to interpretation facts are," Pelagio said.

Stay away from watching only partisan news outlets. These are often one-sided stories that are only good for people who have already made up their mind about candidates, Cann said.

Not only should students look at different sources of news to avoid bias, they should also search for information with an open mind, Pelagio said. Looking at Gingrich's campaign isn't going to do much if one has already decided to vote for Romney, he added.

"Anything that gets students involved in the news is better than nothing," Cann said.

He said a study by political scientists revealed that people absorb political knowledge from satirical news shows such as "The Daily Show" and "Colbert Report."

"Is it ideal that people are getting their news about everything that is going on in the country from people who are mocking everything that is going on in the country? No." Cann said. "If infotainment programming is the gateway drug that turns young people into news junkies, then perhaps that's not such a bad thing."

Ultimately, students get involved in politics because they think it's important, he said. People would identify more with politics if they understood how much government actions affected their lives, he said.

"Some of that burden falls on candidates, and some of that burden falls on the rest of society to let people know that paying attention to politics matters," Cann said.

Voters are the base of our political system, Pelagio said. If no one votes, party members with extreme views are more likely to be voted into office.

"If every person in the United States voted, then our government would represent more accurately what the country as a whole wants to be," Pelagio said.