In a poll of 270 students taken last week by The BG News, 45 percent of students said they plan to vote for John Kerry in the presidential election, while 38 percent said they plan to vote for George W. Bush.

With the race so close, it is no secret that the student vote could make or break either candidate.

According to the current Reuters/Zogby nation-wide poll released Sunday, Bush and Kerry are deadlocked at 48 percent each.

However, Kerry leads six of the 10 battleground states, according to polls by Reuters/Zogby.

The record numbers of citizens planning to vote have made the Wood County Board of Elections a very busy place this year.

“We have just been swamped,” Debbie Hazard, Deputy Director of the Board of Elections, said. “Voter registration is definitely up at an all-time high and the same with absentee ballots.”

Here on campus, only 11 percent of the 270 students said they did not register or do not plan to vote tomorrow, a percentage that Katie Hartwell, president of the College Democrats is very happy with.

“I am so excited that we have been able to energize our generation,” Hartwell said. “I hope this shows politicians and people everywhere that this isn’t the age group that doesn’t vote.”

Monika Winkler, chairman of the College Republicans said she is also excited that so many students plan to vote.

“I am really excited because that means we did our job in pushing voting,” Winkler said. “It is the biggest election of our generation and I am not surprised that so many people are voting.”

Fifty-eight percent of the students surveyed were freshmen, 30 percent were sophomores while juniors and seniors polled made up 6 percent each. Two graduate students were included in the random poll.

Most students said they plan on voting in the election, with 2.5 percent unsure how they will vote and another 2.5 percent said they did not wish to say. Less than 1 percent planned to vote for the Libertarian candidate, Michael Badnarik.

Students included in the poll were randomly selected out of the current student phone directory.

The university and college student factor has not been as easy to distinguish due to the growing use of cell phones by people 18-30 years of age. This has become a point of concern in the accuracy of nation and state-wide polls.

In a survey taken by In-Stat MDR, a wireless market-research firm in Arizona, 14.4 percent of the 970 people questioned only had cell phones and the majority were Americans between the ages of 18-24.

Hartwell said the student vote, often a percentage not recognized in professional polls, will make the difference this year.

“Everyone has friends in Iraq or has known someone who has been there,” Hartwell said. “It has had a great impact on our lives and has compelled us to vote in one way or another.”

In The BG News poll, 53 percent of students said they are voting by absentee ballot, while 18 percent are registered in Wood County.

The remainder of students in the poll, 15 percent, said they plan to take a trip home to vote.

Voting polls in Wood County will be open from 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. To find out what precinct you are in and where to vote, check out the Wood County Board of Election’s Web site at www.co.wood.oh.us/boe.