Third graders at Starry Elementary School are casting their vote today in the presidential election.

While their voices won’t be counted among the official results this election day, third graders at Starry Elementary School in Marion are nonetheless casting ballots for the presidential candidate of their choice.

The roughly 125 students have created a festive voting booth and have been studying the Democratic and Republican candidate positions, especially in terms of education policies.

Mock voting began at 9:15 and will continue until each student has had an opportunity to enter the booth and vote. Results from the paper ballots will be tabulated prior to the end of the school day. Iowa Independent will bring you those figures as they are made available.

Update: The Starry Elementary students voted to elect Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in their mock election. Obama earned 74 votes. Arizona Sen. John McCain garnered 48.

After school the third graders, smiling from ear to ear for having participated in the process, were sent home with their own “I Voted” stickers.

The mock election at Marion High School also tilted to Obama’s campaign. It is unclear if the older students also donned stickers proclaiming their accomplishment.

“We aren’t releasing any information at this time,” said a spokesman for the department. “We expect to make a press release this afternoon.”

The body was located on the southeast side of the school, between the building and a small baseball field. Police are not indicating how the body was discovered or who made the discovery. Residents along Hillview Drive, a road just south of the administrative services building (a connected facility on the high school campus), are being canvassed. One resident on South 22nd Street, a road east of the school campus, also reported having a conversation with police this morning in connection with the investigation.

It is unknown at this time if the victim is male or female. Police are also not releasing any details as to the manner or cause of death. The Linn County Medical Examiner was called to the scene.

Starry Elementary School, a K-3 facility located across S. 15th Street and to the west of the high school, was open for registration yesterday. The high school is scheduled to hold registration next week.

This Marion precinct, my home precinct, encompasses downtown and is primarily a blue collar area. While it has more Democratic voters than Republican, our most populous voting block is those who have selected no party (independents). It is these individuals who have been courted heavily by candidates on both side of the aisle, and who will probably make the evening more interesting.

Additional observations and happenings located below the fold…

6:38 p.m. — I’d estimate that there are 300 people in the room right now (but we still can’t tell who is in what precinct). There are large groups gathering for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, former North Carolina John Edwards and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Right now everyone is in what I can only describe as “clumps” of people. There are chairs, but there will not be enough. The bleachers have been pulled out from the wall too and, for now at least, they appear to be sparsely populated.

An Obama supporter is standing at the main entry and asking everyone who comes in if they are “fired up.” A few people, walking in from below zero wind chills, have given her a rather odd look, obviously unaware of the campaign slogan.

6:51 p.m. — Nine minutes before the doors close and we’ve had our first sighting of a supporter for Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich. All the candidates — Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, in addition to those already named — now all have at least some supporters at the caucus.

6:57 p.m. — Three minutes before the doors close and we are up to what I’ll esimate to be about 400 people. Right now, it appears that Edwards has the largest “clump” of support, but I still have no way of knowing if they are in my precinct or a part of the other Marion precinct that is sharing the gymnasium.

Clinton’s supporters have glow in the dark bracelets. And… wow… it appears that we have five Kucinich supporters standing in the middle of the gym floor. I honestly was not expecting to see any here in Marion, which runs a bit conservative even on the Democratic side.

7:01 p.m. — Well, it’s one minute after closing time by my clock, but no one seems to be moving to close the doors or limit anyone else getting in line. (Right now there is no one in line.)

7:03 p.m. — No one has yet made a move to get things underway although the caucus-goers are quieting down and getting a little antsy.

Here we go, local residents Jeri Thomas and Mike Warner are bringing the caucus to order. It is extremely difficult to hear anything because there is no microphone. Thomas is now going through the process of nominations for permanent caucus chair. No surprises here, Thomas and Warner are both approved for continued service.

Thomas and Warner continue to work their way through the necessary party business associated with the caucus (i.e., nomination papers for the various local, state and federal candidates).

7:13 p.m. — There seems to be a bit of organized chaos around the room as the chairs work to get an accurate headcount of those in the room. I was just told that we have 158 people in our precinct. That means, in order to viable, a candidate needs 24 people standing for them. It looks as if the entire field of lower-polling candidates is about to drop.

More chaos at the moment as the precinct on the other side of the gym begins to count off by person… 1, 2, 3, 4…

7:27 p.m. — Unofficial results *before* the first realignment period are as follows:

• Obama – 51
• Clinton – 49
• Edwards – 38
• Richardson – 7
• Biden – 5
• Kucinich – 5
• Dodd – 3

The wheeling and dealing is now underway. We are being heavily courted by the Edwards people. They now need 9 more people to garner a second delegate.

The Kucinich folks nearly immediately packed up and went to Obama. The people for Biden have now split between Edwards and Obama. I’m not seeing much second choice movement toward the Clinton campaign.

7:36 p.m. Decisions, decisions, decisions. People are still talking and still making deals. I hear the local Biden guy was promised he could be a delegate to the county convention if he went with the Edwards group. Not a bad deal, except for the fact that I’ve never heard of any county convention alternate delegates being turned away.

The Richardson people just split between Edwards and Obama campaigns — to much applause from both.

It looks as if most people have settled into their new seats — my husband and I being some of the last few to decide what we were going to do. I’m going to go check to see if there are new alignment numbers that can be reported.

7:52 p.m. — It looks as if the Edwards campaign is going to come up four short of its goal for for achieving two delegates. The Obama campaign has 12 more than they need to achieve their maximum number of delegates, but they are refusing to release any supporters to go sit with Edwards — and quickly talk those who get up and head that way out of going.

The caucus officials and precinct people for the Clinton campaign are currently re-counting her supporters. There isn’t much celebration in that part of the room, although I’m not sure if they are trying to be quiet to be counted or if it is because they aren’t liking the numbers.

7:55 p.m. — At this moment, there are a lot of children running around the gymnasium, and the caucus officials continue to count. This is what might be one of the most boring aspects of caucusing — the big wait.

In what is beginning to become more than a little annoying, the Obama supporters on the other side of the gym (in the other precinct) are chanting on and off. If there is one thing I won’t miss in the coming months it is the “Fired up, Ready to Go” chant.

8:00 p.m. — It’s interesting to watch the play between the Edwards and Obama groups. Edwards picked off at least one of the Kucinich supporters that had orginally went to sit with Obama. The Obama precinct leaders were following and talking the whole time he walked off.

While it is clear that the Obama campaign has organized better than the Dean campaign of 2004, it has also became clear that they have not paid much attention to caucus strategy. As it stands now, they could send four supporters to sit with the John Edwards group without any harm to their own delegate count, and, by doing so, would have a high likelihood of knocking a delegate from Clinton.

Since it isn’t John Edwards that is polling so close to Barak Obama in New Hampshire, it would make sense for the Obama team to release the four people to sit with Edwards and help him pull a delagate away from their strongest competitor in the next contest.

8:07 p.m. — We continue to await the results after the alignment period. It’s time to count since no one else in the room appears to be moving.

The Obama people in the gym received news from somewhere (a radio report?) that Obama is leading in the state. The chanting has begun yet again.

8:14 p.m. — Here are the delegate and people counts out of the precinct:

• Clinton – 48 people — 2 delegates
• Edwards – 49 people — 2 delegates
• Obama – 61 people — 2 delegates

In 2004, this precinct went the same way as the state as a whole, ushering Sen. John Kerry first and Edwards second. It will be interesting to see how well we fare when compared with the rest of the state later tonight.

While most people are now leaving the caucus, the event is hardly over. There are still people to be elected to the county party, resolutions and other assorted business to be handled. Despite that, however, the national show has come to a close here in Marion and I’ll be signing off. Thanks for caucusing with me tonight.

Susan Bremer of Marion is not only a supporter of Clinton, but a frequent volunteer for her campaign in Linn County. Coming to see Clark speak on Clinton’s behalf was important, she said, because it adds to her knowledge base of the candidate.

“I want to know as much as I can about the people who are involved with her and her life,” she said. “He’s known her for 24 years. That gives you a good idea of what her personality is if she has friends like that.”

Dale Todd of Cedar Rapids, who signed up early on with the campaign for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, didn’t come to the event to learn more about Clinton.

“[Clark] is an incredibly neat and gifted public servant,” Todd said after the event. “I worked and volunteered for him. There were a lot of us who were involved in his campaign — or maybe we should say ‘the campaign that could have’ — here in Iowa. We encouraged him to campaign in Iowa and, we think that if he had, the last election would have came out a bit different. We just saw huge support those last few weeks. If he had just came to Iowa, who knows what type of impact that might have had.”

Todd came today, he said, “because Wes is a good friend.”

“I don’t think you’ll find anybody who’s got the depth and the breadth when it comes to foreign policy and the culture of the military,” he said. “He’s a hard worker and just has an incredible work ethic. And, really, he’s just a down to earth guy. While he is outspoken and against the war, he commands a huge respect among the military. He’s a force to be reckoned with — one, of course, we would have loved to have on our side.”

Bremer agrees and says she knows the Clinton campaign is fortunate to have such an important surrogate and supporter.

“He is unbelievable vocal and very charismatic,” she said. “He is a presence. I met him last night at headquarters and while he was just standing there, he exudes professionalism and believability. You can tell he has honesty and integrity.”

Clark spent the bulk of his prepared remarks listing the reasons why he is supporting a Clinton candidacy. The question and answer period, however, turned to foreign policy — Clinton’s vote to label the Iranian Guard as a terrorist organization, former military efforts in Bosnia and the current state of U.S. relations throughout the world.

“It is difficult for him to bring down the war into terms that the general public can understand, but he did very well today,” Bremer said. “He was able to tell us about some of the Iran and Iraq issues that we are having and that they are having. He actually made me feel more comfortable wit the war just in those few minutes. I was looking at him and it is people like him who are commanding procedures over there. I feel confident — especially with Hillary in as president — that we are going to be able to pull out of this war with maybe less casualties that we expected originally.

“But, all that being said, he’s just a super nice man and, of course, he’s supporting Hillary because he’s super intelligent smart,” she added with a wide smile.

Bremer said that, like Clark, she has lots of reasons for her support of Clinton, even if she’s never met the candidate face-to-face.

“I saw her and [former President] Bill [Clinton] at a park in Cedar Rapids on 4th of July,” she said. “I got goosebumps — the hair stood up on me. I’ve never seen anyone so warm and so loving and so kind, but at the same time very articulate about what she wants. She’s going to be a tough candidate and I want her to be tough. We need to clean up this mess we are in now. I have kids and I don’t want to leave the world this way because I was never wanting it the way it is now — with Bush not caring about middle class people, the people that do all the work. They are the crux of the American society, economy and community. Hillary knows that they’ve been overlooked for the past eight years, and she’s going to make sure that this doesn’t continue.”

Her words echo what Clark told the audience at the event.

“She wants the job to do something for the United States of America — for our people — and to use America’s power to help people all over the world,” he said. “I think that’s the right reason and the right character to seek this office.

“So, Hillary Clinton. Smart. Experienced. Great character. Tough minded. She’ll stand up for America. Let’s make her our next president.”

Video of Clark’s prepared remarks is also available.

Nearly 300 undecided caucus-goers and supporters of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards braved unseasonably warm temperatures when they filed into Vernon Middle School’s gymnasium in Marion on Saturday afternoon. Many were expecting to hear the Democratic hopeful’s patent message of hope. No one, however, was expecting him to be accompanied by arguably the campaign’s best and most respected surrogate speaker, Elizabeth Edwards.

Not only did Elizabeth provide the introduction of her husband — “the love of her life for the past 30 years” — but she gave an audience member her thoughts following a question and performed “mommy walk” duties with Elle Marie, a fussy 4-month-old.

“[Elizabeth] just came up to me and told me to sit down and listen to her husband while she walked the baby around,” said excited mom Angela Barltrop. “It was pretty neat. She told me that she needed her baby fix.”

Elizabeth, who raised four children of her own, looked quite comfortable as she spent several minutes walking and bouncing the baby, who nearly immediately quieted and calmed. While she walked, she often stopped and exchanged words with members of the audience.

“I don’t have the opportunity to hold babies very often,” she whispered as she passed. “I’m loving this.”

John Edwards gave his wife a quick smile when she began walking with the infant, but otherwise didn’t let the incident distract him from the point of his visit.

“Our country needs a big change across the board,” he said. “The Bush years have been great for oil companies, big insurance and drug companies, and military contractors, but not for regular Americans. From universal health care to making trade deals work for American workers, as president, I will stand up to the special interests and fight for hard-working families.”

This type of tough talk was something Linn County Auditor Joel Miller wanted to hear during the event.

“John Edwards has been leading the way all the way through the campaign,” Miller said before Edwards arrived. “I hope to hear more of that — see more of him taking a stand, and being the first to take a stand, on the issues.”

While Miller focuses personally on a wide variety of issues including health care, the war in Iraq, the environment, and the economy, he says there really wasn’t a single stance that led him to support Edwards.

“The thing that I like about John Edwards is that he is a fighter,” Miller said. “He has been hitting the issue head-on. He’s been speaking the truth. He’s out there and doing the things that I think he needs to do as a leader — and I think he is best leader amongst the candidates. I want to see strong leadership and I want to see someone who knows where he’s going and he definitely knows where he is going.”

Kay Lammers, who sits on the Marion City Council and is trying to decide between three of the presidential candidates, asked Edwards “what good it would do to bring the unions back strong if all of the jobs are in Mexico.”

“I just feel that NAFTA was a mistake and we cannot lose anymore of jobs to foreign countries — that’s part of our health care problem,” she said. “I thought he had a very good answer. He didn’t answer me about not giving Halliburton any government contracts. But I’m talking about that type of company — we give them everything and they pull up stakes and go to a foreign country. We have to either penalize them or force them to pay when they bring their goods back into the United States just like any other foreign company. We simply cannot afford to bleed any more jobs out of this country.”

Don White wanted to know how Edwards would deal with global warming and other environmental issues.

“What he said fell right in line with what I believe,” White said. “I believe we need to tie economic development to green collar jobs because that type of work has to be done in America. You can’t outsource something that needs to be done here, where you generate or produce the energy. I believe — although I don’t know all the details of Edwards plan — that we can do it with renewable energy sources. We can do it without petroleum and without coal.”

Perhaps the most probing question came from a man who wanted to know what a Democratic nominee Edwards would do differently than previous Democratic nominees, when faced with similar a similar circumstance.

“If you are the Democratic nominee, and you find yourself in the position of Al Gore in 2000 or John Kerry in 2004 at the end of a very close election and there is all sorts of voting irregularities and there are suspicions of whether or not things are fair, what would you do?” asked the man. “Would you fight? If the newspapers are calling for you to concede the race, would you? Would you do what Al Gore did or would you have acted more like Kerry?”

Before Edwards began to answer the question, he motioned back to Elizabeth.

“You’ll have to wait for me, then you can talk,” he said while looking behind him to where Elizabeth sat. He then turned back to the audience and smiled. “Elizabeth wants to say something,” he said and those in the gym laughed and clapped their approval.

“Will I fight?” Edwards asked back. “Yes. Absolutely — with everything I’ve got. Not for me, but for all the people in America who need us to stand up — for all those people who voted who deserve to have their vote counted.”

Edwards added that he was not in favor of electronic voting machines and, as president, he “would want to lead an effort to get us back to paper ballots.”

When Edwards finished, he passed the microphone to Elizabeth.

“The votes don’t belong to Al Gore or John Kerry or John Edwards,” she said. “They belong to you and it can’t be our decision not to count your vote. It belongs to you and the promise was made to you that your votes would be counted. That’s the first thing — it should never have been the candidate’s decision if the votes were counted.

“The second thing is this is the reason we need to nominate John. The truth of the matter is that you hear Democrats all the time say that we should win all the same states. After 2000, they said, ‘and Florida.’ And now they say, ‘We need to win all the states and Ohio.’ Why in the world would we take such a chance when we have a candidate who, in the battleground states, is by far the most electable candidate?”

Elizabeth went on to say that, when husband is the likely nominee and placed against the likely Republican nominee, he wins nearly every state. In the same situation, she said, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wins less than half and Sen. Barack Obama wins less than a third.

“You want a cushion in the event that there are shenanigans someplace?” she asked. “This is the guy you need. What’s more than that, we need to campaign everyplace. Howard Dean is right. We need a 50-state strategy. Are we going to win Utah? Not likely, but that doesn’t mean we don’t play there and that doesn’t mean we don’t fight there. You know in 2004 we didn’t run a single television advertisement in the state of North Carolina and there was a North Carolinian on the ballot. Why? Because the pubahs in Washington all decided that we can’t win the state of North Carolina.”

An audio clip of the outlined exchange can be accessed below:

“What I’m advocating is a totally universal program with 100 percent of the American people involved,” Dodd told the seven people gathered around the table. “This is an affordable and quality health-care package.”

Dodd’s plan, if he is elected, is to introduce his health care initiative within days of inauguration in 2009 and to phase it in over a four-year period. He says having a “portable” plan is key to covering all Americans.

“Regardless of where you live in America, [health care] will follow the individual and not the job,” said the U.S. senator from Connecticut. “This is a plan which is literally an American plan. What is does is to create a marketplace for health care — something I call a Universal HealthMart — that is based on the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan.”

Under Dodd’s plan, all employers would have to provide insurance to their employees either through the HealthMart or through existing systems. Individuals would be automatically enrolled in the program. Individuals and businesses would contribute to HealthMart based on their ability to pay, and individuals would have a choice of plans and coverage.

By pooling coverage, Dodd says, this plan would spread risk and increase the bargaining power of the government to negotiate lower premiums. Premiums would be made further affordable by requiring insurance companies to provide incentives to both individuals and businesses that promote the use of technology and preventative care as a condition of participation.

“Chris Dodd’s proposal thoroughly achieves universal coverage without qualification,” Barbara Smith, health care policy expert and consultant to the campaign, said in a prepared statement. “It is the boldest and most pragmatic plan to date to achieve universal and affordable coverage while improving care. It provides for the comprehensive reform the country needs, while at the same time, being achievable by building on the current system.”

Smith was a lead staffer on health care to Rep. Jim McDermott, a member of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee between 1993 and 1995.

The 87 percent price increase in premiums in the past six years and “other outrages,” says Dodd, have led to an environment where change can happen.

“There is a level of impatience in this country that is palpable,” he said. “Anyone who doesn’t understand that isn’t listening to the people of this country at all.”

Dodd says his ability to walk across the aisle and get things done is what will be the major difference in his plan becoming a reality.

“In the past I’ve always been able to approach and work with people who don’t necessarily agree with me,” Dodd said. “That’s exactly what’s going to have to happen with health care. This isn’t all going to get done by one person. It’s going to take the ability to sit down and work with other people.”

Dodd is not the only Democratic candidate to put forth a health care plan. Former Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Bill Richardson all have developed initiatives for health care. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has not provided a detailed plan and told the Des Moines Register on July 21 that she will wait until she is elected to determine which path to pursue in relation to health care.

Video of Marion’s kitchen table event is available on Dodd’s website. Dodd’s current visit to the Hawkeye State will continue through Saturday.