A Democratic mock caucus organized by Ames NextGen took place late Wednesday Iowa State. 

“Voting in 2020 starts with the Iowa caucus, NextGen wants to make young people understand voting and get them excited about it so they will show up to vote in the 2020 election,” said Murphy Burke, Iowa press secretary of NextGen America.

During the mock caucus, all 17 Democratic presidential candidates were represented by chairs. 

Each candidate was allowed a 15 second speech, given by a volunteer who supported that candidate. 

Participants in the mock caucus moved to their preferred candidate and were counted for viability. A candidate had to receive 15 percent of the total people present for a candidate to move to the next stage in caucusing; the viability threshold for this mock caucus was four voters. 

Only three candidates moved to the viability stage for this mock caucus. Burke created an example of how to persuade voters whose candidate did not have enough viability to move on to the next stand of caucusing.

The official delegates for each candidate that was deemed viable at the Iowa State mock caucus was Warren 3, Yang 1 and Sanders 1. 

“I liked that you actually did the movement of the caucus versus using a presentation to learn how to caucus,” said Mia Riddley, freshman in mechanical engineering. 

NextGen has events like mock caucuses at universities and colleges to educate and inform younger voters about candidates and the voting process, Burke said. 

“I had a general idea of the caucus but I learned a lot by coming to this,” said Brooke Nelson, freshman in electrical engineering. “I definitely feel better about going to the caucus to vote.”