By Paul Saunders
The University of Limerick (UL) might be the first place in the world to break the news on who will be the next president of the United States.
The UL student newspaper – An Focal – polled the campus on who they thought should be next. Their three choices were Republican nominee Donald Trump, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and the third option “I Don’t Know, Someone Else.”
Over 500 students turned out for the vote with “I Don’t Know, Someone Else,” winning 272 votes. That is 53% of voters not wanting either Mr Trump or Mrs Clinton in the White House. Mrs Clinton came in second with 161 votes (32%), followed by Mr Trump with 77 votes (15%).
Nearly all of the student voters described it as the worst election choice in history and that if they were American they would have no clue who to vote for.
The majority of the students who voted for “Someone Else” opted to write down other people they’d like to nominate, some of the names that popped up were – Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, Joe Exotic (a man who breeds tigers), Conor McGregor and the deceased gorilla, Harambe.
Undecided voter Liam Lennon was delighted that “Someone Else” won: “I think both of them are awful, it’s such a bad choice between those two.
“If any other candidate from history ran against those two I’d have voted for them, it’s a no-win scenario. So that’s why I think someone else should do the job,” Mr Lennon added.
The students of UL may have broken who is going to win the election before anyone else but with five days to go before polling day, there is no telling what other twists are in store, for this unique US election.
Molly Cantwell