Every presidential campaign has issues, and students in Utah Valley are weighing their support of 2008 candidates heavily on the issues important to them. Though stances on certain issues seem to go hand in hand with a candidate's political party, voters say they cannot always count on their candidate to agree with them on every important issue.

"Issues that voters care about tend to fall into two different categories: social and economic issues," said Kelly Patterson, director of BYU's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. "Usually, the issues themselves and how people feel about them cause voters to naturally stand on two sides of the line that encompasses a whole array of social and economic issues. People sort themselves along these two dimensions according to their background and personal experiences."

Party identification is a good predictor of how people assess a candidate, Patterson said, but it doesn't necessarily force people to vote for someone with whom they wouldn't normally agree.

"These days it doesn't seem to me that the parties really matter," said 24-year-old UVU student Shaun Johnson. "It seems that Republican is often where my ideas are, but I still don't usually agree completely with everything that a presidential candidate says, no matter what party they are."

Some voters will even ignore party affiliation completely and focus solely on the important issues at hand.

"I don't think party affiliation is the biggest issue, but I will probably be a little more biased towards Republicans," said 25-year-old BYU student Noah Reynolds from Pleasant Grove. "I would go off of what they were promising to do with the issues at hand."

So which issues at hand are most important to Utah students? Reynolds said someone who deserves his vote would be someone who is passionate about the education system and who would allot more government funding to public schools.

Being able to respect and trust a candidate in addition to agreeing with their platforms is a driving force to many young voters.

"Whether I respect a candidate or not depends on their stance on the economy and its connection with the energy crisis," said Evie Brinkerhoff, a BYU Law School graduate. "Do they see it as an issue that they need to address immediately versus later on? What do they propose to do about gas prices and energy? Are they going to attack oil companies and how they lobby? Are they going to somehow incorporate all of the above?"

Some students have even specific goals for a future president's attack on political issues. Austin Smith is a computer science major and a member of the Facebook group BYU Students Against the War in Iraq.

"The most important issues for me in the presidential race," Smith said, "are the economy; specifically making the lives of average and lower income Americans better; the Iraq War, ending it quickly but responsibly; and civil liberties - basically keeping the rights I believe are in the Constitution intact, which means no wiretapping Americans without a warrant, no torturing detainees at Guantanamo, equal rights for LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender] people and strong separation between church and state."

Other issues that student voters frequently expressed interest in were taxes, defense, energy independence, unemployment, illegal immigration and the legal definition of marriage.

Copyright Brigham Young University 18 Sep 2008