Ron Paul was the runaway favorite of students, staff and teachers at a recent mock caucus at Lenape High School.
Paul garnered 294 votes, while Mitt Romney won 146. Newt Gingrich was third with 105 and Rick Santorum took 81 votes.
More than 1,500 students in more than 45 classes attended the mock Republican caucus.
The school’s media center was transformed into “Caucus Central,” where the candidates, their positions and the issues were highlighted in displays throughout the room.
Students served as election workers, candidate representatives, campaign workers and caucus members.
Each period, a mock caucus was held. During each caucus, one to three precincts were created.
Students watched videos to introduce them to what a caucus is and how it works. Then, student representatives spoke to try to persuade their classmates to support their candidate.
Clips from the campaign, debate highlights and specific debate interactions and statements were streamed to help students make an informed decision. Students were able to peruse the displays highlighting issues, analysis and official campaign statements to further enhance their knowledge of the campaign and issues at stake.
This event was organized and run by media specialists Jaime Fauver and Jennifer Gaffney.
“I’ve always been really into voting and elections and trying to get students excited about elections,” Fauver said, noting she created a mock caucus and primary in 2008. “Nobody seemed to know what a caucus was and this seemed like the perfect opportunity for the school to hold a caucus. What we really liked about it is we pretended that every period was its own precinct.”
“I think overall, young people seem to be really going for Paul,” Fauver said. “A lot of the students were reading his policies which all seemed like ‘Hey, we don’t want the government involved, we want freedom and we wouldn’t be able to do what we want’ and I think that appeals to teenagers.”
She believes the mock caucus had the desired effect on students.
“I think they have a much better understanding of how caucuses work, what the purpose is and who the candidates are,” Fauver said.
At the beginning of every period, she asked who knew the names of the four Republican candidates and as many as 70 percent didn’t know.
“Here they actually learned a little bit about where the candidates stand, got to be introduced to them,” Fauver said. “They got a lot more out of the process and understanding so when they hear that Iowa had a caucus they actually know what that is.”
She said the students who portrayed representatives of candidates were “phenomenal.”
“They really made the whole event,” Fauver said.
Junior Jennifer Comerford took pictures at the caucus of those involved.
“I’m not really into politics, but this gave me some information about it,” the 16-year-old said. “It’s important to know about this.”
Comerford, a Democrat, said she likes the events put on by the media center.
“I understand the political process a lot better than I did,” she said.
Senior Cara Cuiule, who represented Newt Gingrich, will be eligible to vote come November.
She said she will stay Independent.
“I think that it helps to know about what they’re talking about when you watch the news,” Cuiule said, noting she is now more aware of politics and has learned what a caucus is and about the candidates.
She voted twice in the mock caucus, first for Santorum and then, after some research, Romney.
A caucus is an event where voters — party members who represent precincts — congregate and try to persuade their opponents to support their candidate. The candidate with the most supporters is the winner.
Nineteen states use the caucus system.
A primary is a state-wide election where voters cast ballots for one of their party’s candidates.
