MU Republicans Weigh In On the 2012 Election

For most MU students, election day begins and ends once their ballot is cast. For the volunteers with the Missouri College Republicans (MUCR), it means election day lasts from when the polls open until the votes are counted and a new president is declared. For a few volunteers, it means skipping classes in order to keep up with election results and pass out additional literature urging voters to vote for Romney.

“I skipped all my classes today because it’s against my capitalism to go to class on election day,” said Jake Loft, MU student and executive director of day-to-day operations for MUCR. As a college student, issues that are most important to Loft are taxes, employment and school tuition.

MU freshmen and MUCR volunteers John Soper and Ben Rogers share Loft’s concerns.

“The most important issues to me are having a job in four years, taxes and tuition,” he said. “I put money into school to get a job. Fifty percent of people don’t get a job after college.”

Soper has worked with Missouri Republican candidates in their campaigns, such as Dave Spence and Peter Kinder. Citing college dropouts Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerburg, he says students have a better chance of dropping out of school to become billionaires.

Loft has another concern for when he graduates college: the Affordable Care Act. He says that with this act, a lot of businesses will no longer offer benefits, and lines for receiving health care will increase, among other disadvantages associated with the law.

Soper and Loft agree that if Romney follows through with his campaign plan, both can see themselves having a job after college. Rogers firmly believes that Romney will create jobs for college students as well. They believe that Romney’s plan to lower taxes is a good way to start new businesses, thus increasing everyone’s chances to get a job.

“Because taxes on businesses are so high, they are outsourcing jobs to China,” Loft said.

“Small businesses don’t know what they’re paying [in taxes], they can’t afford to hire new people and they can’t afford to expand,” Soper adds. “It’s not good for [businesses] to expand when they don’t know what [taxes] they’re paying.”

Whereas Romney is unclear in some of his issues, such as abortion, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is knowledgeable, say MUCR volunteers.

“If you’re clear on issues, you’re going to get votes,” Loft said.

Soper says that the states that are receiving the most attention are Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Minnesota. He thinks that Pennsylvania will be the dark horse of the election, and Minnesota will be controversial because of the issue of same-sex marriage on the ballot.

Both Loft and Soper say that the main thing that could swing the election would be voter fraud.

“If any kind of fraud takes place, it will be with provisional ballots in states like Ohio,” Loft said.

Soper, a Wisconsin resident, has counted votes in previous elections in Wisconsin. When doing so, he has seen fraudulent names on the ballots, such as the Sylvester Stallone. Stallone does not live in Wisconsin.

Another thing that Soper believes could swing the election are votes for the third party presidential candidate Gary Johnson. Libertarians are conservative, and if the Republican party is divided, Johnson will siphon votes from Romney, which is usually an indicator that the Republican candidate will lose to the Democratic candidate.

Check out our related election piece on MU students in support of President Obama.

By: Ashley Szatala