OU students poll Super Tuesday voters

By Audrey Esther and Darren Brown, News9.com INsite Team

Voting is a personal decision, one you make in private and anonymously. On Super Tuesday, a group of OU students had to find out for whom voters cast their ballots and why.

"Super Tuesday is like Christmas morning," Melissa Koeka said. "I absolutely love this day."

Melissa Koeka and Alex Duncan are political science students who conducted exit polls interviews in Cleveland County. Because it can take hours, sometimes even days to get election results, pollsters conduct exit poll surveys to get an early indication of how an election will turn out.

"To be able to get a poll out of people and really get into their heads and understand what they want is very exciting," Koeka said.

Exit poll surveys also tell pollsters who voted, why they voted and for whom they voted. Getting voters to reveal that much information, Duncan said, is all in the approach.

"You have to be kind of folksy and come off charming and like you're a nice guy so they'll talk to me," he said. "Once that works you kind of got them hooked."

Melissa agrees being blunt does not always work.  

"You have to be laid back and relax and real friendly and let people know if they don't want to take the survey that's fine but it would be very helpful," Koeka said.

The exit poll surveys collected by these students were just for educational purposes, and mainly to learn more about the election process.

"It's very exciting," Koeka said. "I've loved politics for quite some time."  

For complete election results, check out the Politics Section right here on News9.com.