Little Citizens Cast Their Votes Dry Run For Kids Voting Program Brings Children To Polls With Parents

Ten-year-old Jordan Fish, dressed in a bulky blue snowsuit, strode purposefully to the Kids Voting booth at Seltice Elementary School to exercise his right to vote.

“I’m not going to vote for Jim,” he said, referring to Post Falls Mayor Jim Hammond. “He wants to put in big business and I’m against that.”

When he was done marking his ballot, he folded the paper between stiff mitts and slid it into the red, white and blue ballot box.

All over Kootenai County, more than 2,000 children went to the polls Tuesday. But unlike previous years, they weren’t just watching their parents vote.

The city elections provided a dry run for the countywide Kids Voting program, which is designed to teach citizenship and improve turnout. Students voted at kid-sized booths. Their ballots were counted separately.

Despite Jordan’s protest vote, Hammond easily won the votes of the younger generation. He had 164 votes to Don Kline’s 65. Students also voted in Joe Bodman and incumbent Scott Grant to the council.

Had the children been in charge in Coeur d’Alene, Sam Sears, Ron Edinger and Dixie Reid would have won the Coeur d’Alene elections with 472, 454 and 425 votes respectively. Elizabeth Meyer, 12, said she voted for Edinger because he is a school custodian.

Students studied community issues in school and came up with their own school-wide issues. At Seltice Elementary, students chose the name of their mascot; would it be Humperdink the Seltisaurus or Repto the Seltisaurus?

High school and North Idaho College students helped at the polls and conducted surveys to find out whether Kids Voting was improving voter turnout.

In 1994, the program increased turnouts in other states an average of 3 percent, according to a Stanford University study.

Of 128 parents surveyed, 32.2 percent said they would not have voted if their children hadn’t wanted to vote.

“I’m simply astounded,” said Tony Stewart, an NIC politics instructor and Kids Voting board member.

Results were broadcast on a special cable television program hosted by NIC students and the Kids Voting organizers.

The most important goal of Kids Voting, organizers said, is to get children interested in the democratic process.

“It felt good,” said Anna Taber, 8, after she voted at Seltice Elementary.

Her mother, Sandra Taber, said Anna had been asking her questions about the election for a week.

“She says, ‘Mom, we need to vote’,” Taber said. “It’s good. Maybe it will get some people out here who wouldn’t necessarily vote.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Susan Drumheller Staff writer Staff writer Ken Olsen contributed to this report.