Students predict election results

Election Day coming next Tuesday. Voters have a lot of choices to make and some students at Saint Leo University are predicting who will be for the hottest races nationwide. That includes Florida. Fox 13's Brianna Arredondo joins us now. And Brianna, this was actually a class assignment. Yeah, it actually was. So this class was looking at polling, which of course is a big part of elections. And this Saint Leo professor really wanted to kind of give students a taste of what that is like and that entire process. They were focusing on the midterms for congressional and also state governor races. So the class looked at the candidates' electoral history, voter demographics and trends, and they found that young voters like Gen Z could swing some close races. Now, midterms historically have low voter turnout, and the professor says that his students realized that young voters could actually make a difference, of course. Now, as for the Florida predictions, here's what that student found in the races for U.S. Senate and governor. Our class and our students assigned to Florida thinks that the Republicans will win both the Senate and the House. But we think that Moody will win by more than Donald's. That's our prediction based on the polls, the movement on the ground and all sorts of stuff. Yeah, and just to kind of add some clarification to what Professor Frank Mr. Frank Orlando was telling me there that student predicts that Byron Donalds will win, but that The student actually thinks that it'll be by a smaller margin compared to what Ashley Moody will be facing against Angie Nixon. So that was pretty interesting. Obviously, no one's really going to know until election night how things will play out. But it was certainly cool to see that process. And it's really interesting. And we know the role that undecided voters play in every election. This they could have a really big impact when in these races in Florida. What did their research say about voters who were on the fence? Yeah, you know what? Of course, they do have a lot of power with that. St. Leo students in that class said that some states actually have We have more voters who are up for grabs than they may think. One of the students was assigned to Nebraska, another one to Kansas, and they were initially thinking that it would be easier to predict the outcomes of those races, but then they found out, nope, actually, there's quite a few people who may be undecided, and here's what he had to say about that. Even though we're in a very polarized environment, students have realized that there are still chances for parties to win broadly if the environment is right, and if you have the Have the right candidates. Yeah, so they're getting a lot of experience that could help them. Even just to end up in politics, should they decide after they graduate from school or even just becoming a better informed voter with that whole process? And that professor was also saying that local elections during midterms should also be remembered that those are just as important to vote in as the presidential years. Yes, it's in your backyard. What a great lesson for these students to learn. I mean, whether you have a political science background or not, this would be great for any student to get to experience and then compare the results to what they hypothesize. Yes, a really unique way to kind of see that whole civic process. Thanks for bringing it to us, thanks Brianna.