first-time college student voters in Iowa caucus

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Was listening to one of my favorite talk shows today, and they began talking about the Iowa caucus. They asked for callers who either lived in Iowa, or had to call in and describe their caucus experience. </p>

<p>This one girl calls in… she’s in the car with her mom and states she’s a Drake student, and her mom is taking her back to school early so that the daughter can participate in her first caucus (she’s from Illinois, but registered to vote in Iowa). The radio hosts asked her who she was voting for, and she kind of hesitated; so they asked her if she was going to the Republican or Democratic caucus, and she said Republican, but wasn’t sure who she was voting for. The hosts asked if she had it narrowed down to two candidates, and she said, “Yea, either Obama or Edwards.” At which point the hosts immediately pointed out that these were both Democratic candidates. So then you can hear the caller talking to her mom (who’s driving the car) in the background, asking for clarification as to who she’s supposed to be voting for… was it a Democrat or Republican. The hosts kept asking her who SHE wanted to vote for, and she couldn’t really answer, but would keep asking her mother. They asked to speak with her mother, but the mother wouldn’t go on air. Let’s just say it was sadly comical. Here this mother is driving her daughter back to school early so that she can caucus, and the daughter has NO clue what’s going on. </p>

<p>After hanging up, the hosts made a comment about hoping the girl educated herself, not only on the caucus process itself, but on all the candidates in the next 24 hours. It makes you wonder who really wanted to get to Iowa by tomorrow when the voter had no idea what to do or how it was going to happen.</p>

<p>Anyway, so I began to wonder exactly how many college kids who are not Iowa residents had registered to vote in Iowa because they may never get a chance to caucus again, and how many were returning early to school so they could participate? Anyone know any stories here? Hopefully something a little more inspirational than this girl.</p>

2

<p>The whole IOWA thing is just bizarre…why so much power in that place, that I don’t understand</p>

3

<p>so much power because the winners gain a priceless amount of publicity and forward-moving momentum. Also, because the caucus process is different, it allows people to eliminate candidates until the strongest one stands, which supposedly gives more credence to the winner. I think only twice in recent history has a winner of the Iowa caucus not gone on to win their party’s nomination.</p>

4

<p>Us Old people otta stick together. Raise the voting age to 28!</p>

5

<p>That’s how my sister acts when you ask her who she’s voting for. Given her lack of knowledge, and my inevitable influence upon her, she’ll be voting for Ron Paul.</p>

6

<p>but so much power for so few people, NOT democracy in action at all</p>

7

<p>Not Iowa, but I’m a NH college student who does not live in-state, and I will be voting in the primary.</p>

<p>I know for whom I want to vote, though.</p>

8

<p>Would you mind sharing that?</p>

9

<p>“Us Old people otta stick together. Raise the voting age to 28”</p>

<p>BS raise it to 58</p>

10

<p>For better or for worse, there are plenty of students that uninformed and uninterested in the election, but most of them aren’t going to caucus. I think this girl is very rare in possessing that combination of qualities (or claiming to). It makes me wonder if it was an elaborate comedy routine for the benefit of the radio audience.</p>

11

<p>Hanna, I find that it is true of SO MANY adults, so I am sure it is true of the kids.</p>

<p>After the last election, many of the people claimed they were voting for Bush because they thought he was supporting something that was really a Democratic position.</p>

12

<p>That may be, but that was in the general election, not the primary, and it involved voting, not caucusing.</p>

<p>Caucusing in a primary is a pretty hard-core thing to do, just looking at the turnout numbers. It takes longer, you can’t do it in advance, you can’t get it over with in the morning, etc. People with a vague, passing interest in government usually find that they have something else to do that evening.</p>

13

<p>Good points, Hanna. I don’t live in an important primary state and can’t definitively comment on how young people in Iowa and New Hampshire are involved. I can only guess what the involvement would be in my state, and it would be significant.</p>

14

<p>S registered to vote in the CT primary when he was home over the break. He’s doing an absentee ballot. He voted absentee in our extremely local election in Nov.
My H and I have been dragging the kids into the election booths since they were born. Unfortunately, it’s all shading the circles now, no more pulling the gigantic lever.</p>