My husband and I arrived at our precinct at 7:30 am to find the parking lot packed and a line of voters snaking out the door. Of course we had heard the hype about the possibility for long lines and extended wait times, but after voting for years in notoriously busy South Florida precincts, we thought "lines" and "wait times" had a bit of a different definition in our Minnesota suburban community. Mercifully, the line went quick.
I was clad in sweats, wet hair and sans makeup and encountering people I knew at every turn so trust me, I was counting the minutes. While stealthily avoiding eye contact with neighbors that I knew were displaying lawn signs opposite my candidate picks, I noticed poll workers approaching parents with children and announcing loudly "don't forget that your kid can vote too". "Ummmm, NO!" my brain screamed. "No, no, no - it's like a Florida debacle all over again." "Why, why, why?!" Why can we as a country not get this whole voting thing down pat? Those wearing Dora the Explorer light up sneakers and sucking on juice boxes at 7:30 am are NOT eligible to vote!
But alas, as happens more and more frequently these days, I found out that I was wrong. The poll workers at my precinct were touting a program known as Kids Voting Minnesota. According to their website, Kids Voting Minnesota is "a grassroots, non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to educating Minnesota youth about the rights and responsibilities and mechanics of participating in American democracy." Students in grades K-12 go to the adult polling sites on Election Day and vote for the same candidates and issues as adults. Though not part of the official results, student votes are tallied and reported at schools and by the media." Sponsored by a few large MN corporations (amongst others), Kids Voting Minnesota has election day voting experiences set up in 37 cities across the state.
In my precinct, the Kids Voting space mirrored that of the actual voting booths and systems. (The main difference seemed to be that the kids voting could skip by the poll worker who asked me four times how to spell my last name.) A table was set up off to the side of the room and covered in Kids Voting signs, ballots, "I VOTED" stickers and a box to place completed ballots.
Kids Voting ballots are just like the grown up version, with federal, state and local (depending on the precinct) candidates listed. The Kids Voting ballots contain pictures of the candidates and amendment questions as well. Many kids in my precinct, clearly on sugar highs from juicebox #2, were running around and proudly showing off their "I VOTED" (also known as the "30 minutes late to work free pass") stickers to one another.
The Kids Voting program has curriculum available for use in schools and communities and election day voting results are posted on the organization's website. In the 2004 election, more than 67,000 Minnesota kids participated in the program. So there you have it. Kids CAN vote (ok, well, kinda). What a great idea to help teach the importance of voting to today's youth! Sharing the voting experience with children can have a profound impact on them.
Growing up, each election day, my mother crammed all four of us kids in the voting booth to demonstrate the importance of voting. Afterwords, she would explain to us who she voted for and why. It's a lesson that has always stayed with me and I wouldn't dream of missing out on voting on election day.
For more information on Kids Voting, please check out their website at www.mnpower.com/kidsvoting
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