The characteristically liberal-leaning University of Wisconsin campus did not surprise many with its presidential election results: a whopping 25,692 votes for Sen. Kerry and 7,049 for President Bush, according to the Dane County website of wards in neighborhoods highly populated by students. Kerry won Dane County with more than 66 percent of the vote, with only a handful of polling places not reporting by press time. Bush received nearly 33 percent of the vote in “progressive” Dane County and Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik and Independent Ralph Nader received less than 1 percent of the vote combined.

“It does not surprise me at all. I definitely expected students — especially here in Madison — to support Kerry as the only real pro-student candidate,” Liz Sanger, chair of College Democrats, said.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, added he saw students openly showing support for the Democrat.

“You could see it, being on campus this week, by students publicly expressing their vote. A lot of the sentiment was anti-President Bush sentiment,” he said. “It’s also the historical pattern of this campus.”

Despite the lopsided margin of victory for Kerry in the campus area, Chair of Students for Bush Jessi Schober expressed satisfaction with the Republican turnout. However, she said the lack of interest in a balanced political discourse on campus was upsetting.

“The College Republicans have been chastised on this campus. They’ve faced nothing but discrimination,” she said. “Having [more than] 7,000 students vote for Bush really proves they are on this campus and they should be included. There is no free exchange of ideas on this campus. Madison allows only liberal discourse.”

However, Sanger said students most identify with John Kerry. Sanger listed the recent state budget cuts and university tuition increases as reasons many students voted for the Massachusetts senator.

“[Kerry] had an entire section of his platform dedicated to student needs,” Sanger said. “Kerry has a real plan.”

Verveer added to the belief of Kerry being a young-person’s candidate, saying he believed students voted with the same ideas in mind as many Americans: namely, the economy, health care, the war in Iraq and Homeland Security.

“For many students, Iraq is a particularly important issue that comes close to home. A lot of them have friends or family in Iraq,” Verveer said.

In the last week, Sanger said she was busily making phone calls, reminding people to vote while coming up with more “get-out-the-vote” strategies.

“I’m happy with the way things went in Madison and also in Wisconsin,” Sanger said. “If we do win, results [will] be in part because this campus really boosted those numbers for the Democrats.”

Schober had mixed feelings about the voting drives in Madison.

“It depends. Some people think the sheer act of voting is good. Others feel making an educated vote is important,” she said. “I’m in the second category. I think a lot of the drives on this campus focused on the number rather than informing students of the issues.”

Schober noted she has visited John Kerry’s website as often as George Bush’s and she wishes more Madison students had made efforts to explore both campaigns before casting their votes.

“You need to understand both sides to understand your own,” she said. “That’s one thing I strive to do.”

Sanger said she was pleased with the way students encouraged each other to vote.

“I hope this continues in the future,” she said. “The registration efforts on campus by partisan and non-partisan [groups] were instrumental in turnout we’ve seen this year.”

Though both Sanger and Schober enjoy a similar fervor for politics, the election did not go off without a hitch. Wisconsin Democrats accused some Republicans of impeding the vote by illegally turning away voters with false information, while Republicans complained of vandalism to their Madison headquarters.

Schober said she was not personally aware of damage to the headquarters, but she had heard of Republicans finding swastikas burned in their cars and lawns.

“There’s a big difference between being liberal and progressive. Our campus is very narrow-mindedly liberal,” she said.

Schober added she wrote a letter to UW Chancellor John Wiley and will additionally file a complaint about the lack of diversity of ideas on the Madison campus.