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Kids Vote
Forsyth County taking part in program to teach the democratic process
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Published: November 4, 2008
Children can tag along and vote with their parents today as part of Kids Voting 2008.
Voting booths for Kids Voting will be set up at 37 voting precincts. All of the Kids Voting precincts are at Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.
It's the first time that Forsyth County has offered Kids Voting in a presidential general election, said Patty Grant, the school system's social studies coordinator.
The school system is staging the mock elections with the help of the Forsyth County Board of Elections and Kids Voting, a national nonprofit that works to teach students about the democratic process and the importance of voting.
Students will be able to vote for president, Congress, governor and lieutenant governor in the mock election.
Children can also vote online at www.kidsvotingnc.org.
"What we hope to do is to teach students young, to catch them early when their opinions about voting are just forming and let them experience what it is to have their voice heard, to have a chance to make a choice," Grant said.
"What we're hoping is by offering children an opportunity to vote on actual Election Day, that they will encourage their parents to go to the polls and actually cast their vote."
Kids Voting election results will be posted on the kidsvotingnc.org Web site on Nov. 5, officials said.
Like their parents, children in Kids Voting were able to vote early.
More than 25,000 of the about 51,000 students in the school system took advantage of early voting, Grant said.
Eric Elliott, the chairman of the Forsyth County board of elections, said that children will have the same voting experience as their parents.
"What's so great about it is that there are so many people who are charged up about it and the youth, too, are getting plugged into it by kids voting," Elliott said.
■ Lisa Boone-Wood can be reached at 727-7232 or at lboone-wood@wsjournal.com.
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