Presidential Poll Seeks University Election Trends

After forty-eight years in the Republican column, will the College break with tradition and vote Democratic this year? The question will be answered today and tomorrow as undergraduates, grad students, and 'Cliffies choose between Kennedy and Nixon in the CRIMSON presidential poll.

Although strongly backed by historical precedent, College Republicans will have to buck not only Kennedy's identification with Harvard, but a series of impressive Democratic showings in recent election-year polls as well.

Even in the supposedly rock-ribbed Republican days of the "Gentleman's C," Republicans sometimes had a hard time maintaining their ascendancy in the College. A fair majority in 1928 which anamolously skyrocketed to a 3-1 landslide in 1932 dwindled away to a slight edge by 1936.

Four years later, during a time of new prosperity, the GOP easily reaffirmed its place in the saddle with a 2-1 triumph.

Nineteen forty-eight was the last year the GOP could feel truly happy about. Dewey then won the support of 51 per cent of the undergraduates polled, while Truman got only one-quarter of their ballots.

By the next election, however, the race was so close that both sides could claim a victory. In the official 1952 CRIMSON poll, Eisenhower carried the University by 32 votes and ran a photo-finish with Stevenson among undergraduates. But if results of somewhat broader unofficial pollings of Adams House and the Law School were added in, Stevenson emerged as the winner.

In 1956 there was another photo-finish, with Eisenhower receiving 49 per cent of the total undergraduate vote to 48 per cent for Stevenson. The total University vote, which included Faculty members and graduate students, however, gave Stevenson a 127-vote edge.

Undergraduates will be able to vote this year at lunch and supper today and brunch tomorrow in the House dining halls and the Union. Law students will be polled in Langdell North, Langdell South, and Austria Hall this morning, while other graduate students will find ballots at Harkness Commons during lunch and supper and at Littaner from 1 to 5 p.m.