URBANA — By an overwhelming margin, Sen. Barack Obama won the Gargoyle's schoolwide mock election survey conducted in classes Oct. 22 through 24.

The Democratic presidential nominee also took the lead on all of the specific issues included in the polling.

Of the 302 students surveyed, 281 indicated a preference for a candidate — in other words, 281 votes were cast in the "mock election" aspect of our survey. Obama won 83 percent of the vote, compared to 12 percent for McCain. Five percent voted for another candidate.

Obama was viewed favorably by 83 percent of students, while McCain was rated the same by 23 percent.

According to the Student Services Office, Uni has 308 students, so the survey reached 98 percent of the student body.

Percentage-wise, freshmen were the most supportive of Obama, giving him 91 percent of their vote. By a small margin, Obama fared worst among subfreshmen, receiving only 78 percent of their support.

Support for McCain was highest among subbies and lowest among freshmen. Nineteen percent of subbies voted for McCain, while only 4 percent of freshmen did the same.

Our survey also asked voters to compare the candidates on various issues and character traits. Although Obama beat McCain on all categories, the results perhaps bring to light the areas in which Obama supporters viewed McCain more positively. For example, 42 percent of students indicated they trusted McCain more on the issue of national security.

On character traits, Obama again led by wide margins. Students indicated McCain's strongest trait to be that he put his country's interests ahead of his own — perhaps a reflection of the McCain campaign's "Country First" slogan. Still, only 33 percent of students felt that "putting country first" described McCain better than Obama; 70 percent felt the opposite.

More detailed results from our survey are posted below. Although our survey reached all but 10 Uni students, it should be emphasized that it is not scientific in any way. Various factors could have introduced bias.

Electorate breakdown

Notes:
– Third-party candidates are now included in percentages, but are not listed. The remaining vote percentage in each row up to 100% is the percentage won by third-party candidates.
– The following tables are formatted similarly to CNN's exit poll data pages. For information on how to read these tables, please see the explanation from CNN.com.