A recent CCES News poll sent out to the CCES community gives insights into the opinions of those 89 people who took the time to respond. 68.5% of respondents were students not of voting age, 25.8% were students of voting age, and 5.6% were adults. This is likely due to the poll only being available to the Upper School Students Schoology group. 

The first question asked respondents which presidential candidate they currently prefer. The most popular candidate was former President Trump, with 39.3%. President Biden trailed behind with 29.2%. 

The only other candidate still in the race that a significant amount of people preferred is Literally Anybody Else, a man from Texas who changed his name to that in protest of the Trump-Biden rematch. 13.5% of respondents chose him.

Nikki Haley and RFK Jr. each got 4.5% of the vote. However, Haley has dropped out of the race and is not eligible to run third-party in most states. The other major third parties, Green and Libertarian, only received 2.2% and 1.1%, respectively. 

The next question, “What do you value most in a candidate?” was very divided, but 25.8% of respondents chose economic policy. “Aligns with my preferred party,” “views on abortion,” gun policy, and foreign policy all received between 7.9% and 14.6%. Many respondents declined to choose one and said they did not value one more than others. 

The poll that brought the majority of respondents together asked whether they thought Biden and Trump are too old, not old enough, the right age, or “age doesn’t matter.” An 82% majority said that both candidates are too old, while 15.7% said age does not matter. Only one person each chose the other two options. 

Respondents gave Biden’s competence a mean 3.43 out of 10, compared to Trump’s mean competence rating of 5.14. Trump’s rating had two peaks, with 23.6% giving him a 1 and 16.9% giving him an 8. 

Also out of 10, election security was rated a mean of 5.536 with a relatively normal distribution. 

The distribution of how often those polled said they consume news media, with “several times a day,” “once a day,” and “a few times a week” each between 20% and 30%, and “rarely” and “once a week” both at 10.1%. 

The share of those who said the media they consume is right leaning and left leaning were almost identical at 34.8% and 36% respectively. 12.4% said their media is not at all biased, and several respondents didn’t choose any of the three options and said they consume both sides equally. 

The biggest takeaway from this poll is that currently a larger share of respondents prefer Trump to Biden, but the vast majority think both candidates are too old. However, there’s no telling what will happen until November.