Iowa College Student Demographics

[bbachtung]

Since the Iowa Caucus (for the Republicans, at least) will be on January 3, 2008, and everyone is speculating wildly about how many college students will be around in Iowa to vote in the caucus, I figured that I'd do a bit of research to put things in perspective.

Iowa State University:

Total undergrad enrollment: 20,440
Total undergrads from Iowa: 15,735
Source: http://www.iastate.edu/~inst_res_info/FB07files/pdf07/FB07-50.pdf
County-by-county breakdown of Iowa undergrads: http://www.iastate.edu/~inst_res_info/FB07files/pdf07/FB07-49.pdf

University of Iowa:

Total undergrad enrollment: 20,738
Total undergrads from Iowa: 13,085 (63.1%)
Source: http://www.uiowa.edu/facts/enrollment/index.htm

University of Northern Iowa:

Total undergrad enrollment: 10,453
Total undergrads from Iowa: 9,930 (95%)
Source: http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/studentbody.asp?listing=1023098&ltid=1&intbucketid=

[Psyclone]

I agree that Iowa college students are one of the likeliest groups to support Ron Paul in the caucuses. It's good news for Ron Paul that they moved the Republican caucuses to January 3rd because that means most students will be home for Winter Break rather than at school. Why is this good? Because more than 80% of students are registered to vote at their home address rather than their school address, and there aren't any absentee ballots for the caucus so the students will, by and large, be near their polling place on caucus night.

[bbachtung]

Let's not forget all of the high school seniors who, while they may be 17 at the time of the caucus, will be 18 and eligible to vote by the time of the general election.



The Republican Party of Iowa's Constitution states that in order to participate in a caucus, one must be a Republican, be eligible to vote in the next election and be a resident of that precinct. The Republican State Central Committee has interpreted that provision to mean that a caucus participant need only express a
Republican affiliation and that it is up to the individuals in a particular caucus to determine their eligibility.

http://gopweb.com/bhcr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=31

According to the Constitution of the Republican Party of Iowa (not available on the Iowa GOP's website, but available on the Polk County, Iowa Republican Party's site (http://www.polkgop.com/default.asp?contentID=515)):



ARTICLE IX

CAUCUSES, CONVENTIONS, AND MEETINGS

***

2. Eligibility to vote. Any person voting at a precinct caucus must be a registered Republican in that precinct (or a person who will by the date of the next general election become eighteen years of age and indicates an affiliation with the Republican Party), and a resident of the precinct. A person may register to vote or change party affiliation at the caucus.

[Nefertiti]

That's very good news. The question is how do you get the college students to go out at night on Jan. 3 when it could be very cold to vote? What about getting students (or younger people) in the various cities and counties to host post-vote parties for others their age? Make the entrance requirement showing your receipt from voting. Advertise these parties through whatever their networks are and call them Ron Paul parties or something. Have the Ron Paul supporting students help to arrange rides for those other students to vote and to get to the parties.

[paulitics]

what time does the caucus begin and end?

[katao]

More interesting research:

"You've also probably read all about Howard Dean and how young voters displayed a similar enthusiasm for his campaign, but burned the governor at the ballot box when they failed to show up at the caucus. The conclusion: young voters don't turnout and Obama's strategy is historically risky. There's only one problem with this analysis. It's all wrong.

An estimated 21,000 18-29 year olds participated in the 2004 caucus, 17% of the total 122,000 caucus participants (http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/Iowa_release.pdf). That number is strikingly close to 20%, young voters' share of the eligible electorate"

http://www.futuremajority.com/node/741

[Eric21ND]

That's very good news. The question is how do you get the college students to go out at night on Jan. 3 when it could be very cold to vote? What about getting students (or younger people) in the various cities and counties to host post-vote parties for others their age? Make the entrance requirement showing your receipt from voting. Advertise these parties through whatever their networks are and call them Ron Paul parties or something. Have the Ron Paul supporting students help to arrange rides for those other students to vote and to get to the parties.

Definitely need to get organzied to herd the young people to the polls. Young people are excitable, but sometimes they forget to pull the trigger...or in this instance the lever.

[Eric21ND]

I just had an idea. You know if we have "Vote for Ron" parties maybe we could give away some door prizes as a little added incentive to get people off their butts. People will do the darndest things if they have the chance to win a free toaster. :rolleyes:

[spivey378]

bribe em with ipods and wii's

[katao]

And we need to not forget the 15 community colleges in Iowa (which will be nearly 100% in-state). They have enrollment of 80,000 which makes up over 2 times the number of in-state University students!

Northeast Iowa 4,811
North Iowa Area 3,136
Iowa Lakes 3,085
Northwest Iowa 1,082
Iowa Central 5,352
Iowa Valley 2,600
Hawkeye 5,360
Eastern Iowa 7,243
Kirkwood 15,109
Des Moines Area 16,046
Western Iowa Tech 5,343
Iowa Western 5,092
Southwestern 1,325
Indian Hills 3,677
Southeastern 3,238
Total 82,499

[katao]

Looks like you could have just 4-5 parties to cover the most important parts of the state. Here's the map of counties, sized by # of state delegates they choose:

http://www.style.org/iowacaucus/maps/images/13pt_iowa_scaled.gif

[michaelwise]

Somehow I think this time is different for younger voters. They definitely have more at stake this time, than they did with Howard Dean. Also they have a candidate who is more trustworthy, and they know it. I wish they would stop comparing us to Howard Dean. All I think about is that scream when I here that name, and some monkey pressing a red button

[Eric21ND]

bribe em with ipods and wii's

Yup we could throw together some pretty good stuff to motivate them. ipods yeah they're alright, creative zen now you're talking! I'd vote for the Ghoul if I got one of those...hmm maybe not. :p

[katao]

High school graduation numbers are about 37,000. A significant percentage of those would be available to attend the caucuses.

We need to start some trend that can spread among the high school students that makes it cool to support Ron Paul.

[Dave]

what time does the caucus begin and end?

They start at 7:00 PM. Time will vary by precinct since a few will have 25 people and a few will have 300. Most will fall somewhere in between. If turnout is 15% I'd say the average precinct will have 50 people - higher in the more populous areas.

I'd say most precincts will be done within an hour.

[bbachtung]

For the high school seniors, how about a "rebel against the establishment by spending an hour at the GOP caucus voting for Ron Paul"?

For the college students, how about a series of post-caucus keg parties?

[transistor]

just a thought... why don't we hedge our bets and do as much to promote the no-change candidates like brownback and hunter?

this would only benfit us if ron paul doesn't get first place because by adding more voters, we'd be reducing the vote percentage between first place and whatever place ron paul gets.

although if we're convinced he's getting first place, it would hurt us by lowering his percent lead over the rest of the guys...

maybe it's something to think about in the coming months when we can better gauge ron's chances in iowa.

[Paul4Prez]

You need a cell phone tree, or email tree, or something like that...

Everyone is responsible for calling x number of people, and they each call more....

[risiusj]

You need a cell phone tree, or email tree, or something like that...

Everyone is responsible for calling x number of people, and they each call more....

We're working on emailing. We're working on ISU right now.
Forum page (http://ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=25632)

We can use all the help we can get.

[Primbs]

The Ron Paul campaign was the first a make some iphone platforms. So give iphones to students on caucus night.

http://ronpaul2008.typepad.com/ron_paul_2008/2007/07/press-release.html