Election 2004

President wins uncounted, precocious ballots of county

It's a landslide in Kids Voting booths, where children learn about the confusion and importance of elections.

By MICHELE MILLER
Published November 4, 2004

When it came down to it, most kids in Pasco County voted along parental lines in Tuesday's election.

At local precincts, 14,381 kids showed up to cast their votes on paper ballots at cardboard Kids Voting booths, said Michelle Card, executive director of Kids Voting Tampa Bay. Those ballots were scanned later at election headquarters at River Ridge Middle/High School.

And as with the real voters, the kids voted to give President Bush four more years in the White House. While the official results were not reported Wednesday afternoon - just like the real election - unofficial results gave the president a big win, with nearly 59 percent of the vote, compared with 37 percent for Sen. John Kerry.

While the kids showed up in good numbers, so did volunteers who helped supervise the Kids Voting booths and got to overhear the musings of those casting their votes.

Some examples:

"Where's Governor Bush on this thing?"

Kid: "Hey Mom, should I vote to keep these judges in office?"

Mom: "How the heck am I supposed to know?"

"This is fake, isn't it?"

"Can I have some extra stickers? I get extra credit in school if I show them to my teacher."

Father: "Come on, Tracey, hurry up. It's not like it's real or something."

Daughter: "Dad, this is important!"

Giving kids the right to be counted and to encourage them to be educated voters is the objective of Kids Voting Tampa Bay, which is part of the national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization Kids Voting USA.

Kids Voting, which includes a six-week voting curriculum leading up to the election, is up and running in five Florida counties, including Pasco.

Founding partners of Kids Voting Tampa Bay include the St. Petersburg Times, Progress Energy, WTSP-Channel 10 News, United Healthcare, Tampa Bay Lightning, Caladesi Construction, Teens/Kids Rooms to Go and Kash n' Karry.

The ballot the kids voted on Tuesday had all the races and one of the amendments, on minimum wage, that were on the real Pasco County ballot. And the results were similar, too. The amendment passed. And the races for office?

"Republicans basically took the whole thing," Card said.

That put local Kids Voting in synch with national results. To see the results from other states, go to www.kidsvotingusa.org.)

Although things ran fairly smoothly, there was some confusion, Card said.

"Evidently some poll workers told some kids they couldn't vote until school started," Card said, adding that the Kids Voting booths were actually open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. "I think only a handful of kids had difficulty voting, but we might be hearing about more."

For more information on Kids Voting Tampa Bay, go to www.kidsvotingtampabay.org

[Last modified November 4, 2004, 00:41:23]