Raffle Held For 60 Univ. Of Utah Students To Attend VP Debate

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Sixty University of Utah students and five alternates were picked by raffle to attend the vice presidential debate, which will take place at Kingsbury Hall Wednesday night.

Those students were chosen Monday afternoon during the live raffle as University of Utah President Ruth Watkins picked the winning numbers.

“It is a huge deal to be able to be in the hall literally seeing history being made. We opened this raffle for just one day, and we had over 4,000 students sign up. Of those, we whittled it down to 300,” said Morgan Lyon Cotti with the Hinckley Institute of Politics, who said the final 60 were then picked from the 300 during the raffle.

“We are well aware that there will be tens of millions of people watching this,” said Cotti. “Really, the only thing that compares was the Olympics where we had this level of security and years of planning into it. Obviously, this is just one day rather than weeks.”

For those who won’t get inside, students will be getting all the debate swag they need.  Face masks, t-shirts and pins were handed out for free to students at the Union Building Monday afternoon.

“I think everyone is really excited to see the difference between the debate we had last week and the debate we are having this week,” said student Sophia Anderson.

“I’m hoping it’s civil. I hope both candidates stick to policy,” said student Riley Armbruster. “As fun as it is to see some mudslinging, I think that’s best left elsewhere.”