Capturing the youth wing
of the youth vote

By Daniel Macht and Rosaleen Ortiz

It's Barack Obama versus John McCain in the general election, according to the results of Nickelodeon's "Kids Pick The President" mock election in January.

"You can pick your friends. You can pick your nose," the ad goes. "Only Nickelodeon gives you the power to pick the next commander in chief in 2008."

Not quite.

Kids Voting USA, a non-profit, recently conducted statewide mock elections in Arizona. Over 90,000 students, from Kindergarten through 12th grade, learned what it takes to earn an "I voted" sticker.

"It is a very simple thing to vote and it should become a habit," said Jack Barse, President and CEO of Kids Voting, which provides age-specific curriculum on the electoral process.

Hillary Clinton carried Arizona with grown-ups on Super Tuesday, 51% to Obama's 42%. But in mock elections, Obama won the youth wing of the youth vote, besting Clinton by nearly 14 percentage points.

Barse said the outcome of the race was less important than helping kids understand the mechanics of voting.

"It is one of the few obligations we have as citizens," he said.

Trickle Down Politics

We visited a group of 6- and 7-year old girls at a church recently in Queens, N.Y. to see how they would vote. Admittedly, unlike Kids Voting USA or Nickelodeon we did not set out to educate the girls about any candidate, issue or party platform.