Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., react to applause from the crowd in the Kodak Theater prior to their debate in Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008. (Elise Amendola, Associated Press)

On a possibly snowy Super Tuesday on the UIUC campus, seven out of 16 randomly selected students will not be gearing up for the cold weather to cast their votes on Feb. 5.

“I don’t feel I’m educated enough to vote, and I don’t want to make a poor decision,” said Jen Bradica, a senior in Kinesiology. “I haven’t followed [the election process] very closely. I’m not going to…vote for somebody because I think they’re cool. I want to make sure I support what they’re doing.”

Bradica also said that she does know a bit about the current state of the election process; however, the information she has received is not enough to finalize her decision before Tuesday.

Senior Kenny Tsai, majoring in Business, has made his decision not to vote based on the fact that he does not know the candidates’ stances on issues well enough.

“I probably know more about candidates and where they stand compared to 70, 80% of the people that actually vote,” he said. “I think too many people vote based on who their parents vote for or based on…if they’re strictly Democratic or Republican.”

However, Tsai feels that, “[his] vote does not really matter…one out of 1; 10; 100 million doesn’t really matter.”

Tsai continued with his reasoning as to why he will not be voting in the primaries.

“I keep up with [election coverage], but I guess it’s not that big of an impact to me personally,” he said.

Although seven out of 16 students are not voting, nine will cast their votes. Six of the nine will be checking the Barack Obama box on the Democratic ballot.

“I support Barack because his political views match mine,” said Nicole Herron, a senior in Psychology. “He’s really concerned about health care and education…he actually has a plan to get these things done instead of saying ‘this is what we need.’”

According to BarackObama.com, part of Obama’s plan will include, “[creating] a voluntary national performance assessment so we can be sure that every new educator is trained and ready to walk into the classroom and start teaching effectively. [He] will also create Teacher Residency Programs that will supply 30,000 exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need schools.”

As for health care, according to Obama’s website, “Obama will make available a new national health plan to all Americans, including the self-employed and small businesses, to buy affordable health coverage that is similar to the plan available to members of Congress.”

Senior Omar Baksh will also be voting for the Illinois Senator.

“I like the fact that [Obama] doesn’t have much experience, so he doesn’t really owe anybody anything,” said Baksh, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. “He hasn’t been influenced by the traditional method of politics in Washington.”

Although Baksh plans on staying loyal to Obama, like the other six Democratic students, he “would not mind” having Clinton elected.

“I think she’s a really good candidate, especially with Bill Clinton behind her,” said Baksh. “[She’s] a very worthy presidential candidate.”

According to the Council of Foreign Relations website, cfr.org, Clinton’s proposal for education includes a plan to have “contingent funds flow only to countries with strong education plans…this mechanism will inspire countries to reform while ensuring that taxpayer dollars only go to countries where [the U. S.’s] confident it will reach children in need.”

Clinton’s plan to improve health care differs from Obama’s too. According to Issue2008.com, “Clinton believes in incremental reforms that will lead to universal health care through insurance premium subsidy, but feels that single-payer health care is unrealistic.”

Senior Usman Ahmed, a Democrat majoring in Economics, will be voting for Obama, although he [has nothing against Hillary Clinton].”

An important factor in voting for Ahmed is a candidate’s foreign policy.

“As far as voting, I look for people who will have a good, [strong] foreign policy that won’t rub our name in the dirt like it already has been,” said Ahmed.

Both Obama and Clinton have plans to get troops out of Iraq; Obama’s plan includes withdrawing all troops within 16 months.

Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans would continue the war in Iraq, or the “war on terror.”

Sr. and Republican Greg Chesney, majoring in History, will vote for Senator John McCain on Super Tuesday.

“I think out of all the candidates, he will probably be able to come up with a better idea of resolving the issues of Iraq,” said Chesney.

According to Issue2008.com, McCain “believes that the ‘war on terror’ is the overriding, transcendent issue of the campaign - and that it is a war [the U.S.] must fight and win.”

Foreign policy, health care, and education are concerns among these UIUC students who are voting. For the nonvoters, educating themselves before an election is more important than making an informed decision.