Students across the Missouri Southern campus are preparing to cast their ballots in the upcoming 2016 presidential election on Tuesday, Nov. 8. The Chart recently conducted an opinion poll to determine their point of view.

Editors randomly surveyed students on whom they plan to vote for this fall. Students could choose between Republican presidential nominee and businessman Donald Trump, Democratic presidential nominee and former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a combination of Green Party nominee Dr. Jill Stein and Libertarian candidate former Governor Gary Johnson, or undecided.

With an overwhelming majority, Trump garnered 37 percent of the vote while third party candidates managed 24 percent. Undecided came in third, with Hillary Clinton finishing fourth with 17 percent.

However, these totals do not necessarily jive with an average of national polls conducted by organizations such as IBD/TIPP, Fox News, Rasmussen Reports, NBC News, Reuters/Ipsos, and others. The amalgamation of surveys by website RealClear Politics shows Clinton at 41.3 percent, Trump at 37.9 percent, and a combination of Johnson and Stein at 11.5 percent.

Nevertheless, some national polling does show that Trump has significantly closed a once-healthy lead for Clinton and is now effectively tied with the Democratic challenger in the race for the White House.

Conversely, The Chart poll shows the position of younger student voters is much different from that of the larger public, with Trump garnering a significant amount of support.

“I think Trump is the kind of president we need right now; he tells it like it is, he’s not a politician,” said Nicholas Owens, junior health science major.

Despite Trump’s considerable lead in The Chart poll, many Missouri Southern students have strong feelings against the New York billionaire and real-estate tycoon.

“As far as I’m concerned, Trump has no business holding any political office, especially in the position of power that the president has,” said Aaron Davis, junior mass communication major. “He just doesn’t seem to have the mental capacity to handle it. I wouldn’t trust a guy whose companies have filed bankruptcy four times, not to mention Trump University; so many helpless people got cheated from that.”

Both candidates have record unfavorable ratings, with national polls showing Trump at 59 percent and Clinton at 55 percent of people saying they do not approve of either candidate. Furthermore, voters also see both candidates as being liars, with 53 percent saying Trump is dishonest and 66 percent saying the same of Clinton.

With the 2016 presidential election 59 days from today, continue to look to The Chart for more election polling and analysis.