Dist. 204 students observe 'chaos' of Iowa caucuses
Parents toting babies while playing politics, kids making bribes with cookies and college students using "class" as an excuse: All in a day at the Iowa caucuses.
A group of nearly 50 students from Indian Prairie Unit District 204 came home Tuesday with these observations and others from a day spent in the Hawkeye state as Democratic presidential campaigns made their final pitches to Iowa voters, and the 2020 caucuses came and went.
The quirks and potential pitfalls of the Democratic caucus system have been on full display from afar, through news stories about a software glitch and lengthy delays in reporting results. But students from Metea, Neuqua and Waubonsie Valley high schools got to see what one described as the "chaos" of the caucuses in person Monday.
At Iowa City West High School, students watched as organizers gave speeches and voters separated themselves into groups based on which candidate they backed.
Tommy Treacy, a senior at Waubonsie, said he was intrigued by the passion of caucusgoers who felt strongly enough about their favored candidates to come out for a two-hour-long session, even with babies or toddlers in tow.
"It was great to see that they were being politically engaged," Treacy said.
Once candidate support was totaled, those who fell below 15% were deemed "not viable." Students said presidential hopefuls Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang originally fell into this group. After the viability count, students said, caucusgoers supporting a nonviable candidate were able to join a different candidate's side.
And that's when Ashi Gottumukkula, a senior at Metea, said she noticed the cookies. From an observation balcony, Gottumukkula said, she could see elementary-aged kids offering treats to voters to persuade them to join the camps of different candidates.
"It reminded me of a high school campaign election where people just hand out food to try to get people to come to their side," she said.
Did it work? It was hard to tell, Gottumukkula said.
"I could understand how the results could be delayed just with the amount of chaos the caucus actually is," she said.
These observations, even if inconclusive, are the reasons educators including Chris Wolak took students to see the Democratic and Republican caucuses. This is the second caucus trip District 204 students have made after an initial visit to Iowa in 2016.
"It's a wonderful observational setting of seeing something that - even four years ago, heck, as a longtime government teacher - I had never seen anything like it," Wolak said. "The commitment of people who come to caucus, the horse-trading of if a candidate is going to be viable, will be maybe even more observational and exciting this time around with several candidates in the mix."
While Democrats worked into groups based on candidate viability, Republicans cast secret ballots in the same manner as voters do during elections in Illinois.
Before students observed the caucuses, they heard a speech and got selfie opportunities with candidate Andrew Yang and volunteered with one of six Democratic campaigns. Gottumukkula said many wanted to help Yang after hearing his ideas directly.
"It was really interesting to see how seeing someone and talking to them in person can really influence people to get out there and vote," she said.
Gottumukkula and Treacy will be eligible to vote in the March 17 primary, and both say they're undecided on the presidential race.
Gottumukkula volunteered Monday afternoon with candidate Pete Buttigieg's campaign, which she said involved trying to talk with University of Iowa students to encourage them to come out to caucus. Many students, she said, responded that they couldn't caucus because they had class. With caucuses starting at 7 p.m. and evening classes uncommon, she said that seemed like an excuse.
Treacy said he helped canvass door-to-door in Iowa City for candidate Elizabeth Warren. He found most people were not home or not answering during the afternoon.
Students paid $60 each to go on the overnight trip, with roughly $4,000 in donations from the Mikva Challenge Grant Foundation, Indian Prairie Educational Foundation and Naperville League of Women Voters covering most of the cost.