Just before the caucus, the Hamline campus was colorful with blue Bernie Sanders flyers plastered on every door, campaigners stationed at every table in Anderson and proudly displayed posters in dorm windows. It was pretty clear who had Hamline’s vote; however, Sanders’ loss sent a wave of indecisiveness and methodical candidate research throughout the student body. Who would we vote for now?

The democratic party was undoubtedly split this election. With many students experiencing difficulty in deciding to vote for Clinton — who they once opposed — or taking a chance with an independent candidate, lines started to form in the sand. The fight between voting democrat or voting independent began.

Gunnar Aas, a Hamline sophomore, vocalized his support for Sanders and continual opposition of Clinton. “I originally supported Bernie Sanders for president in the democratic primary and I could not bring myself to support Hillary Clinton because she seems to only support reforms that are approved by her corporate donors.”

It is commonly argued that, by voting for a third party candidate, you are “wasting” your vote and ultimately letting others choose between the two candidates with the best chance.

Aas challenged this idea. “I thought it was the most revolutionary thing to do with my vote to give it to the third party that had the largest chance of getting 5 percent of the vote and earning Major Party Status, which would be huge in breaking away from the two-party system that has gotten us into this mess of an election in the first place. I supported Gary Johnson for President.”

On the other side of the split campus, Andy Stec, a Hamline sophomore, stated that “Hillary is the personification of big-business politics and all that is wrong with the campaign finance system.”

Despite these beliefs, he still supported Clinton in the election out of his opposition of the other candidates. “Jill Stein is the epitome of a single-issue candidate who — while I respect her activism — doesn’t have a place in federal government. Gary Johnson and the Libertarian Party depict all that I despise about Libertarianism — that blind faith in large businesses to do what is in the general interests of the people.”

According to the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, Hamline’s precinct -- St. Paul W-4 P-13 -- more than 75 percent of voters supported Clinton while almost 4 percent Johnson and almost 3 percent to Stein in the general election. In the March caucus, however, Minnesotans voted for Sanders over Clinton by a vote of 61 percent to 38 percent.

Sanders was heavily favored amongst Hamline students, and his loss affected the way they voted.

Stec spoke for many democrats around the nation when asked about the “lesser of two evils” view in the electoral college voting system.

“Ten times out of ten I would support Senator Sanders over Clinton, and ten times out of ten I would vote for her again in the Clinton versus Trump general election.”