With the presidential election coming up, voters are deciding which candidate should lead the United States. Twenty students were asked which character traits they look for in a presidential candidate as well as other characteristics that the students value.

While it is hard to come up with criteria that candidates should meet, students that were interviewed mainly agreed that honesty is an important trait for being president along with accountability, confidence, determination, fairness, being patriotic, preparedness, receptiveness, being reliable, having respect, selflessness, as well as the ability to make good decisions.

The majority of the students unfortunately do not see any traits they deem important in any of the presidential candidates, but a small minority of students see valuable character traits in both candidates.

Students also saw some non-character traits, such as health, experience, physical appearance, or reputation as vital to a successful campaign.

 According to students, the most important non-character traits, in order from most important to least important, are one’s reputation, the experience one has and one’s health.

However, the majority of students believe that these non-character traits are not essential in gaining voters’ support.

One important part of being a president is acting classy or being straightforward.

An overwhelming number of the 20 students believed that a president should figure out a balance between acting classy and being straightforward. Abby George, sophomore, said, “A president should be both. Be straightforward but classy while doing it.”

A very small fraction of interviewed students think that a president should be straightforward, mainly because being straightforward is associated with honesty.

“A president should be straightforward and shouldn’t keep ideas from the people. This goes hand in hand in honesty,” Ben Heigele, sophomore, said.

Perrin Besch, senior, also believed that a candidate should be straightforward, citing, “honesty is the best policy.”

One thing that can be guaranteed on the campaign trail is that candidates, like people, will make mistakes. A candidate might either say or do something offensive, be involved in a scandal or do something that contradicts what he or she says at rallies.

However, every student said they are willing to look at the situation that their candidate is involved in before making a decision. Very few students had unconditional support for a candidate.