Brody Students Cast Ballots in Iowa Youth Straw Poll

Students at Brody Middle School take part in the Iowa Secretary of State’s Youth Straw Poll in advanced of the state’s presidential caucuses.

Nearly 4,000 DMPS students cast ballots in the Iowa Youth Straw Poll. Scroll to the bottom of this article for a table with the district-wide results and to download a PDF with the school-by-school results.

The DMPS citizenship express keeps chugging along as Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses draw near.

Tuesday morning a presidential straw poll was running like clockwork at Brody Middle School. By 9:30 some 750 students and staff were expected to have filed through and cast their votes, all under the watchful eye of Civics teacher/poll watcher/ballot counter Keith Lehman.

Lehman coordinated Brody’s event in accordance with protocols outlined by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office as part of the Iowa Youth Straw Poll involving more than 250 schools across the state. Even though it is a straw poll instead of a mock caucus, students at Brody are studying the Iowa Caucus 101 curriculum posted on the Iowa SOS website. IC 101 was developed by DMPS teachers Joseph Nydle (Hoover), Adam Arthur (Lincoln) and Canada Snyder (Central Academy).

Each voter at Brody was given a ballot and instructed to select one Republican and one Democrat in the privacy of the cardboard voting booths that lined the cafeteria tables. Then the ballots were dropped in the big box at the front of the room where, their civic duty done, the students were rewarded with red, white and blue citizenship bracelets.

The walls were decked with campaign posters created by 7th graders, each of whom was required to report to their civics class on a candidate of their choice as a means of exposing everyone to each of the candidates. Eighth graders prepped with an exercise designed to properly align voters with candidates who share their views and values. Students were shown a series of quotes and asked to guess which candidate they attributed to. According to Lehman, there were some surprises.

“It was a great way to demonstrate to kids that we often form opinions about candidates based on inaccurate information and hearsay. The best way to choose a candidate is to research them yourself.”

The 6th graders focused more on issues than particular candidates leading up to the straw poll but Lehman said all three grades will continue to explore IC 101 throughout this last week before the long-awaited main event finally arrives next Monday.

After each class filed through, Lehman emptied the ballot box in a secure backroom where the votes quickly piled up like drifted snow that he would have to plow. “Luckily I have a student teacher,” he said, “because I am going to have a lot of counting to do after the polls close.”

While students milled about waiting for their classmates to finish and process back to class the cafeteria morphed from polling place to spin room. Huddles formed and secret ballots were shared. Instead of the acrimony that often erupts when adults confide their politics to one another an adolescent banter ensued. It may be fun and games in middle school but by the 2020 cycle current 8th graders will be eligible for the real thing. This time around anyone who will be 18 by Election Day, November 8th, is eligible to participate in the caucuses next Monday night, February 1st. This means most of YOU, high school seniors!

By lunchtime the official results at Brody were in:

Republicans: 660 Total votes cast

1. Ben Carson- 170- 25.7%
2. Donald Trump- 116- 17.5%
3. Marco Rubio- 84- 12.7%
4. Ted Cruz- 66- 10%
5. Jeb Bush- 65- 9.8%
6. Carly Fiorina- 38- 5.8%
7. Chris Christie- 37- 5.6%
8. John Kasich- 35- 5.3%
9. Rand Paul- 33- 5%
10. Mike Huckabee- 12- 1.8%
11. Rick Santorum- 4- 0.6%

Democrats: 662 Total votes cast

1. Hillary Clinton- 297- 44.8%
2. Bernie Sanders- 267- 40.3%
3. Martin O’Malley- 98- 14.8%

UPDATE: Nearly 4,000 ballots were cast by DMPS students in the Iowa Youth Straw Poll. Participating schools included Lincoln High School, Central Academy, Cowles Montessori School, Brody, Hoyt, McCombs and Merrill middle schools, and Riverwoods Elementary School.

The following are the district-wide results from the straw poll:

To download a PDF with the results from each individual DMPS school, click here.

For more on the statewide student straw poll and Caucus 101 curriculum, visit the Iowa Secretary of State’s web site. 

Photos of Brody’s Students Voting in Youth Straw Poll