ORONO – A handful of students gathered Thursday night to watch the presidential debate at the University of Maine’s Memorial Union, and the majority were Kerry supporters.

About 30 students divided between the Bear’s Den and the University Credit Union lounge on the second floor of the building watched the debate. Others drifted by, paused for a moment to listen, but didn’t stay long.

“It was kind of frustrating for me personally,” said Kiernan McMorrow, a fourth-year new media major. McMorrow, who watched the debate in the UCU lounge, said he is a Democrat because he feels liberal positions are more fact-based than Republican positions.

“[Bush] speaks without any reference to fact,” McMorrow said.

Abe Viles, a senior biology major, agreed.

“We need somebody that can find their own facts,” Viles said. He said he had heard that Bush brags about not reading the newspaper and said the president has other people who do his research for him.

“I felt sorry for Bush,” Viles said referring to the pauses during the president’s remarks. “He wasn’t on top of his game compared to his other debates.”

While some students said they weren’t sure if the debates would provide the information undecided voters would need to make a decision on who to vote for, others like sophomore Adrian Foose disagreed.

“I think that the debates have the best chance of swaying undecided voters,” he said.

Foose, who also is a Democrat, said Kerry was doing a better job at putting the facts on the table and that Bush was stubborn and slightly angry while trying to defend his positions.

The war, federal debt and the looming threat of reinstating the draft appeared to be the key issues for those watching the debate on campus.

“So many issues are pertinent to us directly,” McMorrow said.

Travis Bourassa, a third-year student and independent, said he was going to vote for Kerry because he was nervous about the possibility of the draft being reinstated if something doesn’t change.

“It’s something like that that just makes me so nervous with having him in office,” Bourassa said, referring to Bush.

All the students interviewed said they believed the two candidates were respectful of each other.

“For the most part it was respectful, [but] there were some sly digs in there,” McMorrow said.

More important than their party affiliation or what they thought of the debate, students watching stressed the importance of their age group simply getting involved and voting.

“It takes some time, but politics wasn’t meant to be cool,” Viles said. “I don’t care if people vote for Bush. I just want them to check it out for two or three hours before they vote.”

Debate gatherings were also held at other sites. Democrats gathered at Momma Baldacci’s restaurant in Bangor, where Gov. John Baldacci watched the proceedings. Republicans gathered at their headquarters at Penn Plaza in Bangor.