Students across the state of Iowa will vote for candidates in mock-elections just days before the Iowa caucuses.
Every public school, private school, homeschool and youth group were invited to participate on Tuesday, Jan. 28.
In the Quad Cities, straw polls were held at Edward White Elementary in Eldridge, Rivermont Collegiate School in Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley High School in Riverdale, Davenport West High School and Davenport North High School.
Students voted for their preferred candidates for President, the U.S. Senate and U.S. House.
By 1 p.m. President Donald Trump collected 1,571 votes, leading the presidential candidates. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang totaled 956 votes and Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders had 828, coming in second and third place respectively.
Each year, the Iowa Secretary of State office organizes the straw polls to “inspire civic engagement.”
70 students at Rivermont Collegiate participated on Tuesday in Bettendorf. Students there say they’re using the informal poll for practice. Some students like Dwira Nandini and Chirag Gowda are preparing to vote in their first ever election cycle.
“Showing how the process is done, encouraging kids to do this, telling them it’s not that hard of a process. So it’s really good to put it out there,” says Nandini.
Here are the straw poll results from Rivermont.
January 28, 2020
US President (Republican):
Donald Trump – 8
Joe Walsh – 2
Bill Weld – 1
US President (Democratic):
Andrew Yang – 10
Joe Biden – 9
Pete Buttigieg – 9
Bernie Sanders – 9
Elizabeth Warren – 7
Michael Bloomberg – 4
Tom Steyer –4
Deval Patrick – 3
Amy Klobuchar – 2
U.S. Senate (Republican):
Joni Ernst – 16
U.S. Senate (Democratic):
Theresa Greenfield –13
Michael Franken – 11
Cal Woods – 10
Kimberly Graham – 7
Eddie Mauro – 6
U.S. Representative District 2 (Republican):
Bobby Schilling – 14
Mariannette Miller-Meeks –9
U.S. Representative District 2 (Democratic):
Rita Hart – 20
Will you register to vote when you are old enough?
Yes – 44
No-7
