Jan. 27, 2000

Iowa youth decide political leadership
in state's mock caucuses

By Kate Hettinger
CyberCaucus 2000 News Service
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa--Though most of them will not be voting in the general election this fall, more than 13,000 young people across Iowa participated in their own caucuses Jan. 19 and Jan. 20.

The Iowa secretary of state's office sponsored a mock youth caucus for young people in kindergarten through 12th grade. The results revealed that Iowa youth, like their adult counterparts, favor Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush for the general election this fall.

Rob Bernsten, spokesman for Secretary of State Chet Culver, was "really, really pleased" with the amount of participation.

"It was really a pretty smooth process," Bernsten said. "Teachers have really had great things to say."

The results, sent in by fax, e-mail or a secure Internet voting site, showed Gore beating former Sen. Bill Bradley by a 58 percent to 42 percent margin. Bush led with 49.5 percent, followed by Alan Keyes with 16 percent and publisher Steve Forbes with 15.8 percent of the votes. Arizona Sen. John McCain, Gary Bauer and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch followed.

At Southeast Polk Junior High School in Altoona, 8th grade history teacher Vernon King had his students vote in the mock caucus. A total of 155 participated.

King said the caucus generated interest in his students, some who will be able to vote in the next presidential election.

"They thought it was neat," King said. "They were really interested with what ended up happening at the caucuses.... I think a dozen of my students went to a caucus with their parents on Monday to see what was going on."

The caucus results were collected over two days because of a snow storm that hit northeastern Iowa.

"We decided to keep it open for another day," Bernsten said. "We didn't want (any students) to be ripped off, so to speak."

Culver, a former high school political science teacher in Des Moines, developed the program hoping to stress to young people about the importance of their involvement in the political process.

"That's definitely a commitment of Secretary Culver," Bernsten said. "He's really interested in making sure young people are involved, making sure they participate."

This project has been in development since early 1999, when the secretary's office first created the Iowa Student Political Awareness Club. ISPAC is a program for students in grades 6 through 12 designed to show how the political process works.

Statistics from the 1998 federal elections showed that only 15 percent of all registered voters age 18- to 24-year-old cast their ballot. ISPAC was created to increase participation through early education.

In early January, students could participate in party debates called the Iowa Youth Forum. Using the Iowa Communications Network, students across the state asked questions of representatives from both the Democratic and Republican candidates, including Hatch and Gore's daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff.

In addition to the debates, ISPAC sent out a caucus newspaper and a curriculum guide for teachers.

Bernsten said the secretary's office hopes to continue this hands-on teaching program each year. The next major event will be a mock general election in November.