University of Virginia Library

Nixon Squeezes Out Mock Victory

By Tom Adams
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Richard Nixon has beaten
Hubert Humphrey in the mock
election that took place Wednesday
and yesterday, by a narrow margin.
Mr. Nixon received 41.9 per
cent (1,065 votes) of the votes cast
while Mr. Humphrey received 38.8
per cent (986) of the ballots.

Only 2,500 members of the
University community voted in the
election. Many students took the
election as a joke and cast their
ballots accordingly by writing in
their own names. Frank Quayle
received three votes, Bulwinkle and
George of the Jungle received one
vote, and the Wizard of Oz received
one vote.

Over in the School of Law the
results of their mock election was
just opposite of the University-wide
election, Hubert Humphrey won
with 50 per cent of the vote, with
Richard Nixon gaining 39 per cent
of the ballots cast. Third was
George Wallace with 6 per cent of
the law school vote.

The breakdown of the vote in
the University-wide election is as
follows:

               

Candidate	Votes Per Cent
Richard Nixon (Republican)	1,065 (41.9)
Hubert Humphrey (Democrat)	986 (38.8)
George Wallace (American Independent)	142 (5.6)
Eugene McCarthy (Independent)	99 (3.9)
Pat Paulsen (STAG)	52 (2.0)
Dick Gregory	47 (1.9)
Eldridge Cleaver	10 (0.4)

Both Ted and Robert Kennedy
each received one vote in the
University election.

Bill Thomson, President of the
University Young Republicans
issued the following statement
upon hearing of the Nixon victory:
"This victory reveals again the great
amount of support among youth
that Mr. Nixon has generated.

"It is only a small advance
showing of the victory which the
American people will give to the
Republican Party and the
Nixon-Agnew ticket on Tuesday.
This vote proves, as did those at
Madison College and at Washington
and Lee, that responsible collegians
in Virginia and the rest of the
nation realize that only Nixon can
give the United States the vigorous
and realistic leadership it needs."

James Roebuck, president of
the University Young Democrats,
said that he was "not disappointed
with the results. I think the
editorials in The Cavalier Daily
helped a great deal," he said.

Overconfidence

"Richard Nixon received less
than the 50 per cent vote that the
Young Republicans were looking
for," he said. "This shows the
overconfidence in their camp that
will manifest itself on November 5,
I hope."

John Moore, faculty
coordinator of the Student-Faculty
coalition for Humphrey-Muskie in
the School of Law said that the
election showed how important it
was for McCarthy supporters to
vote for Mr. Humphrey.

Anson Franklin, executive
secretary of the Young
Republican's, said that he thought
the election was not planned far
enough in advance to insure
adequate publicity and a good
turnout. "If more people had
voted, I'm sure that Mr. Nixon
would have received a much larger
percentage of the votes than he
did."

Nixon Catches Up

Mr. Franklin said that by the
end of Wednesday, the first day of
balloting, Hubert Humphrey was
leading Mr. Nixon by a slight
margin. But, he said, the ballot
boxes for McKim, Rouss Hall and
Emmett House were not counted
until yesterday, and they put
Mr. Nixon into the lead.

The mock election was
sponsored by the University Young
Republicans, Young Democrats,
and the University Union.

In a similar election at
Washington and Lee University.
Richard Nixon received 59.7 per
cent of the vote compared with
24.5 per cent for Hubert
Humphrey. The Wallace-LeMay
ticket trailed with 6.6 per cent.

An editorial in last Friday's
Ring-Tum Phi, the student
newspaper, began: "For many of us
this will be our first opportunity to
vote in a national presidential
election and frankly, we are
disillusioned."

"If we felt we could endorse
either Humphrey or Nixon, we
would. Choose if you can. We
can't," the editorial concluded.

The Cavalier Daily endorsed
Hubert Humphrey and Edmund
Muskie for president and vice
president on Tuesday.