In preparation for an article I’m working on, I e-mailed about 50 female college students and asked them these questions:

1) Are you voting in the 2008 election? Why or why not?

2) What are the issues that matter the most to you in this election?

3) What about this election inspires you the most? What scares you the most?

4) Sarah Palin. Your thoughts. Go.

I received around 15 responses in 2 days, which isn’t a bad turn around for a Facebook mailing. I’m happy to report that all the women who responded will be voting in the election, and all except two are voting for Obama (one for McCain, one undecided).

What really inspires me about the responses is how thoughtful and passionate they are. These women have really thought about the issues that matter to them, and aren’t mindlessly voting for whoever their parents told them to vote for. As an NYU student I felt that my student body was, on the whole, politically apathetic. Sure, there were the College Democrats and the College Republicans, but I never saw them doing much. It’s very reassuring and exciting to me that there is, in fact, a political spirit at my alma mater.

Some of the responses:

“How could I not [vote]? It may very well turn out to be the most important election of our lifetimes. I thought the 2004 election was going to be most important, but it’s nothing compared to this.”

“I already have my absentee ballot in hand. This is the first major election year that I can vote, so I’m taking full advantage of that.”

“Many people around the world don’t have the right to choose their leaders, and suffer because of it. I have this right, so I had better exercise it.”

“The last 8 years have been the worst in political administration ever, and that’s saying a lot given Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. This is also the first presidential election I will have ever voted in. It is also the first time that we might see a black man ascend to the white house.”

“Palin is quite possibly the most appalling person I have ever seen on television, and that includes Paris Hilton– and at least Paris Hilton has no chance of ever really influencing my life. Palin was used by the McCain campaign solely to garner women voters who would have voted for Hillary. If there are women who switched their position because Palin became part of the campaign, I am ashamed for my gender.”