Hillis Cookie Caucus: And the winner is … Chocolate Chip!
The votes are tallied in the Hillis Elementary School cookie caucus.
To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, democracy is based on the premise that the people know what they want and deserve to get it – good and fresh!
Tonight’s presidential caucuses are dog-eat-dog but a more appetizing version got underway this morning at Hillis Elementary. The school’s traditional “cookie caucuses” were off and running first thing as chocolate chip, M&M and sugar vied for students’ votes in an event that’s best described as spirited. And seldom is heard a cynical word.
No sooner had the Pledge of Allegiance, National Anthem and Hillis Pledge been recited than Principal Beth Sloan yielded the intercom to cookie campaigners. Reiterating messages that were plastered on posters lining the hallways, representatives of each candidate issued last-minute appeals for support. Sugar cookies were touted as the favorites of Justin Bieber and LeBron James. M&M’s were hailed for being “so colorful they make rainbows jealous.” And the early frontrunner, chocolate chip, was billed as “ooey-gooey and oh-so chewy.”
At that point the polls opened in the 5th grade classrooms/precincts of Kellie Tu, Tammy Fastenau and Heidi Slinker. Their students have been studying the presidential election process and they all had assigned roles such as precinct captain, recorder, delegate, ballot box officer or cookie distributor.
The first voters to cast their ballots were kindergartners. In the Slinker precinct moderator Tyrone Cooley told them the Hillis caucuses top the real thing because, “after you vote you get to eat your favorite candidate!”
The voters presented their registration cards and listened to brief remarks from delegates for each cookie before organizing according to preference, tallying their results, collecting a sample of their favorite and slapping on an “I Voted Today” sticker. Then they marched back to their own classrooms and the second-graders filed in. It was all very orderly and efficient. Caucusing went on grade-by-grade throughout the day.
Early exit-polling in the Tu and Slinker precincts showed chocolate chip off to a big early lead, garnering 58% of the vote from the kindergarten classes of Dena Luksetich and Emily Bergfeld and the second grade classes of Molly Bushman and Jen McKay. M&M was at 26% and sugar lagged at only 16% in the early going. Observers were unsure as to how, if at all, the lunch period might influence afternoon voting patterns. Turnout was running very high. Based on the early trends DMPS was projecting chocolate chip as the winner as of 9:30 A.M.
UPDATE: Playground lobbying during lunch and recess may have been a factor as M&M and sugar both surged in afternoon voting, but chocolate chip hung on to win with a total of 155 votes (39.3%). M&M ran second with 132 (33.5%) and sugar totaled 107 (27.2%). Turnout was a robust 92%. Democracy is alive and well at Hillis!
By the time the dust settles on the main event tonight several candidates and their supporters will be trying to swallow some bitter pills as the presidential campaign moves to New Hampshire and beyond. But at Hillis, everybody got to put their mouth where their vote was no matter how the cookies crumbled and the numbers crunched. In the cookie caucuses, even defeat tastes sweet.
The Hillis cookie caucus was even featured on NBC’s Today Show:
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The Hillis cookie caucus was also used by Fox News to explain the Iowa caucus process:
Students Hold Cookie Caucus to Explain Iowa Voting Process: MyFoxDC.com
To view a DMPS-TV video from the cookie caucus, click here.
To view photos from the cookie caucus, click here.
