After nearly two years of talk about walls, emails, locker rooms, and the definition of the word “deplorable”, election day is here. The day where Americans cast their vote for the next President of the United States of America, the next Commander-in-Chief, and the next Leader of the Free World. Or in the case of this year’s election, the “lesser of two evils”.

While Election Day is typically surrounded with optimism and thoughts of a “brighter future,” this election day appears to be out of the ordinary. According to Pascack Valley students, the country may not have much to look forward to in the next four years.

In a Smoke Signal survey that was taken by 441 Pascack Valley students, the majority seem to disapprove of this years candidates and the way this election bodes for the future of America. On a scale from one to ten (one being not confident, ten being extremely confident) 79.1 percent of students answered with a five or below in regards to how comfortable this election made them feel about the nation’s future. What’s more, the most commonly chosen answer was one, with nearly a quarter of those surveyed answering that they feel as little confidence as possible for the future of the country.

So how did this affect the results of which candidate students supported? Hillary Clinton technically “won” with 49.4 percent of the vote, followed by Donald Trump with 36.3 percent, and third party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein pulled in 3.2 and 2.3 percent of the vote, respectively. 8.8 percent of those surveyed opted for a write-in candidate.

However, it is important to note that not many students are comfortable with their selection. In fact, the survey shows it is much more common for a student to be uncomfortable with their choice of candidate, with 72.8 percent of people that voted for either Clinton or Trump doing so as the “lesser of two evils”.

“America should feel confident with who will be running the country, not scared for the future,” PV senior Lucia Klarin said. Klarin, a vocal supporter of Bernie Sanders in the primary season, chose to vote for Hillary Clinton in the survey as the lesser of two evils. Feeling jilted by the primary process in the Democratic Party, Klarin, like many others, had to settle on one of two candidates she did not completely support. “I do believe to some extent that [Sanders] was robbed at a fair chance at the nomination,” she said.

This would lead many to believe that third party candidates would be more popular in this election than ever before. However, even with such low confidence in both of the major party candidates, only 11.3 percent of students believe that a third party candidate had a legitimate chance chance to win the presidency.

This is not to say people do not like the third party candidates, rather more of a reflection of how people will not throw their support behind someone they believe cannot win. This is supported by the fact that 51.9 percent of people that do not believe any third party candidates have a chance at winning would vote for one of them if they believed they did have a legitimate chance.

“The media focuses on Republican and Democratic candidates,” sophomore Elyse Bell said, “so third party candidates usually don’t have enough money and support to bring enough attention to their campaign.” Bell chose to vote for Gary Johnson in the survey because she does not trust Clinton in the wake of her email scandal and does not think Trump is qualified enough to be president with little political experience. “We need unity and this election has brought nothing but division,” she said.

One area that both major candidates seem to struggle in is earning the trust of the public, or in this case, PV students. Trump earned himself a score of 42.4 percent of students who have absolutely no trust in him on a scale of one to ten, and Hillary Clinton only did slightly better, with 29.7 percent of students having absolutely no trust in her.

More than half of the 441 students surveyed, 55.7 percent, believe that Trump’s comments about women have been the most damaging scandal of the election. The only other option widely chosen was Clinton’s email scandal, which 33.9 percent of students believe is the most damaging scandal of the election season. But, whatever the reason may be, trust here seems to be a cause for concern.

Pascack Valley’s students are definitely not going into this election with a blind eye. In their own calculation, PV students have followed the election season relatively closely, with 57.6 percent of students saying they have followed the election either a four or five on a scale of five. At least 70.1 percent of surveyed students tuned in to watch each presidential debate.

On the other hand, only 30.8 percent of students said they watched the Vice Presidential Debate. This number shows in the survey, where students were asked about the Vice Presidential hopefuls. In regards to Clinton’s selection, 77.6 percent of students did not know enough about Tim Kaine to vote or felt that his selection has had little to no effect on Clinton’s campaign. For Trump, 54.9 percent of students thought the same about the selection of Mike Pence, either having little effect on his campaign or not knowing enough about him to respond. As to be expected with such divisive Presidential candidates, the Vice Presidential nominees have had little to no effect on the way people view the race.

Regardless of who a student voted for, most PV students agreed with Clinton on the issues of environment, abortion, and gun control. Alternatively, Trump has more support in the categories of the economy, trade, and terrorism. While students appeared to agree with Clinton more often than not regarding specific issues and policies, Trump had a fair share of support as well. It is also important to note that many students agreed with neither on many occasions or did not feel they were educated enough in a given topic to vote.

Whichever candidate is elected to the presidency will apparently have large shoes to fill. Generally, Pascack Valley students believe President Barack Obama’s tenure as president has been successful. The majority of students answered that his tenure in the White House has been in the range of six to nine on a scale of ten, with ten being the most successful.

But, Pascack Valley does not appear to have much confidence in the next candidate to follow in his footsteps, as almost half of the students surveyed, exactly 45.8 percent, believe that the next president will be worse than President Obama. Only 26.1 percent of students believe the next president will be better than Obama, while 28.1 percent said the next president will be about the same as Obama.

While the school may be generally split regarding this election, the theme of pessimism and a lack of comfortability seems to cloud the atmosphere of Pascack Valley. So for the 6.3 percent of PV students that can vote today, choose wisely.