KVML 2007-2008 Project Coordinator:

• Elizabeth Roy Bartholomew

State Office:
Kids Voting Kentucky 
Joe Gershtenson, State Executive Director
Web site:  (not currently active) www.kidsvotingkentucky.org

National Office:
Kids Voting USA 
2240 Broadbirch Drive
Silver Springs, MD 20904

Phone: (301)625-7580
Fax:
Toll Free:
Email: info@kidsvotingusa.org

Website: http://www.kidsvotingusa.org

Terry Pickeral, Chairman 
John J. Barse, President & CEO

What:
A nonpartisan, nonprofit, grassroots institution, Kids Voting is one-of-kind!  In partnership with families, schools, election officials and community leaders, kids go to the official polling places with a parent or guardian on Election Day to cast their own "kids voting" ballots.  The mission is profound and is being accomplished: Securing the American tradition of civic involvement and the responsibility of voting.

Founded:
Oct 1, 1991 (pilot programs in Arizona in 1989 & 1990).  The idea for Kids Voting USA began in 1987 when three Arizona businessmen went to Costa Rica on a fishing trip and learned that that country experiences a 90% voter turnout, which is attributed to a tradition of youths going to the polls with their parents.

Voter Apathy:
Kids Voting serves to:

• Create an informed electorate
• Increase adult voter turnout 
• Develop lifetime voting habits 

1994: 39% of the voting-age public cast ballots in the general election

1996: 48.4 % of the voting-age public cast ballots for the president, but: only 30% of the 18-24 year olds voted for president! 

1998: only 37% of the voting-age public voted in the general election

Progress:
Kids Voting communities see adult voter turnout increase between 5% and 10%. This would indicate that Kids Voting was a factor in the decision of at least 600,000 adults to vote in 1996!

Scope:
Program participants include:

• 5 million students
• 80,000 volunteers
• 200,000 teachers
• 6,000 schools
• 20,000 voter precincts 

1999: Local elections will see more than 100 Kids Voting communities in 21 states bring students to the polls to cast ballots.  In 1998, more than 900,000 students cast ballots at official polls in the mid-term election.  In the last presidential election, 1996, 1.5 million students cast ballots on Election Day. 

National News:
Parade Magazine, CNN Inside Politics, US News & World Report, Channel One, CNN Newsroom, NPR's Latino USA Radio, Scholastic News and The Associated Press have all run stories about Kids Voting. And Kids Voting has been featured in more than 700 local newspapers nationwide, plus TV and radio reports.

Curriculum:
K-12, the Kids Voting Curriculum provides a series of innovative, action packed lessons that are a teachers tool, designed to be incorporated into existing social study curricula. The lessons include activities for the family, too!

Organization:
Each state in the Kids Voting USA Network is led by a volunteer board of directors of community leaders.

Major National Sponsors:
John S. and James L. Knight foundation
US Department of Education
State Farm Insurance
DaimlerChrysler

Research Highlights:
Trickle-up: Stanford University's Dr. Steven Chaffee found that children in Kids Voting actually impact their parents' civic participation. "Having a student in Kids Voting classes didn't simply increase the likelihood of parents voting, it otherwise seems to have increased the parent's competence as a voter in a variety of important ways." 

Second Chance. As cited in the recently published book, Engaging the Public, Dr. Chaffee has concluded that the trickle-up effect students have on parents is strongest among families of a lower socioeconomic status, and provides a "second chance" at political socialization for those parents who may have fallen behind their peers in political participation.

18-Year-Old Voters. In a University of Kansas/Secretary of State study in 1996, 18-year-old former Kids Voting participants voted at a rate 8 percent higher than non-participating peers.

Closing the Socioeconomic Gap. In a Kids Voting classroom, a student's household affluence or other external stimuli are irrelevant. In fact, research conducted by Dr. Jack McLeod of the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that students of a lower socio-economic status are stimulated to be on par with their peers.

Closing the Gender Gap. Engaging the Public also cites Dr. McLeod's findings that "Kids Voting reversed the customary gender gap on two criteria: it was considerably more effective for girls than for boys in stimulating attention to the campaign in the news and in conveying election information."

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