THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130017
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A20 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 49 lines
Kids Voting is a wonderful program that offers children a practical education in democracy. It's begun to catch on in Virginia, but legislation is needed to make its more widespread adoption possible. Unfortunately, the proposed legislation is in trouble in the General Assembly.
Through the Kids Voting program, schoolchildren in grades K through 12 begin to learn about the political process, especially the importance of voting. In a country where turnout regularly is less than half of registered voters, this obviously is a lesson that needs to be learned.
The culminating event of the Kids Voting curriculum is the chance to cast mock ballots in an actual election. Young people accompany their parents to their polling place and mark their own Kids Voting ballots.
Last fall, almost 7,000 Virginia children visited the polls and cast mock ballots on Nov. 5. Nationally, 5 million students, 200,000 teachers and 6,000 schools were involved. In addition to teaching kids about voting, the program stimulates turnout by their parents. Increases of between 3 percent and 9 percent have been recorded.
To permit Kids Voting to grow in Virginia, legislation is needed to allow students and Kids Voting volunteers to be present in official polling places to participate in simulated elections. The bill has been approved by the Senate but has been tabled by the House Privileges and Elections Committee.
The objections to the bill concern the possibility that a large turnout of children would result in overcrowded polling places and would interfere with the orderly conduct of elections.
But those objections already are addressed in the proposed legislation. Each local electoral board would be empowered to decide if its polling places could accommodate the program. The electoral boards in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, where Kids Voting already has been tried, support the program. So does the Voters Registrars Association of Virginia.
The objections to Kids Voting don't hold water. If polling places can't accommodate a few children accompanying their parents to experience democracy in action, they certainly couldn't accommodate a robust turnout of actual voters. And since the local electoral board can choose to participate, the problem is solved before it occurs.
Instead of finding reasons to keep people out of voting booths, lawmakers ought to be rushing to embrace a program that promises to increase turnout not just today but for a generation to come.
Norfolk Sen. Stanley Walker is scheduled to ask the House committee to reconsider later today. The committee should heed his plea and permit the Kids Voting bill to come to a vote. The House should pass it with enthusiasm.