CBS Mock Presidential Election: 67% of student body would vote for Obama, 26% for Romney.

Although its dean serves as Romney's in-house economist and was principal architect of Bush's tax cuts, 67% of the Columbia Business School student community would vote for incumbent Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, while only 26% would cast their ballots for Republican candidate Mitt Romney. 2% would vote for candidates from other running parties, and 6% remain undecided.  These results are derived from a mock election survey circulated by The Bottom Line to the CBS student body in October. 

Obama held a 65%-28% advantage over Romney across U.S. eligible voters, while international students skewed a bit higher in their support for the democratic candidate, with 71% choosing Obama over Romney.  72% of respondents identified as U.S. citizens, and 28% identified as international students.

Candidate support broken out by gender revealed that female students were less likely to vote Republican, with only 17% endorsing Romney, compared to 30% of male students.

Breaking out respondents by class year, the Class of 2013 skewed a bit more liberal than their 1^st year counterparts.  72% of 2^nd year respondents would vote for Obama, compared to 60% of 1^st year respondents.

Across clusters with over 50% participation, X’13 was the most liberal, with 78% of respondents voting for Obama, while C’14 and H’14 tied for the most conservative vote, both at 39%.  The average participation rate for 1^st year clusters was slightly lower than 2^nd year clusters, 58% vs. 61%.

Students were asked to provide their gender, citizenship status, class year, and cluster.  The survey was circulated to only full-time 1^st and 2^nd year MBA students, with an overall participation rate of 57%, or 745 responses.