HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County school-aged kids will be able to go to the polls with their parents on Election Day Tuesday and cast their own ballots in the Kids Voting Kansas/Reno County election.
Kids Voting is a nationwide, nonpartisan program that teaches students about the election process, cultivates a voting habit beginning at an early age and makes voting a parent-child experience, with the goal of improving voter participation in the adult population. Kids Voting Reno County is a project of the Reno County Young Professionals and Hutchinson Rotary Club.
Three school districts are participating – Hutchinson USD 308, Buhler USD 313 and South Hutchinson-Nickerson USD 309 – as is Holy Cross Elementary School in Hutchinson. Teachers in the schools have been using Kids Voting curriculum to teach about democracy and the election process in the classroom and schools showing a new video that informs students about how to vote, which can be found on YouTube.
All Reno County polling locations within the boundaries of these school districts will have a Kids Voting station staffed by volunteers where kids can take a student-adapted ballot, cast their votes in a voting booth and drop their ballots into a ballot box.
Kids Voting polls will be open before and after school – from 7 to 9 a.m. and from 3 to 7 p.m. Parents are encouraged to vote during these times so they can take their children to participate in Kids Voting.
The local Kids Voting ballots will be counted on Tuesday night by Buhler and Hutchinson high school and Hutchinson Community College students, the results totaled and reported to local media and to Kids Voting Kansas, which will compile statewide results.
Kids Voting is available to K-12 students. Students will vote this year on races for Kansas governor and other state offices, U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress.
Over 1,700 kids voted in the 2012 presidential election in Reno County. Nationwide, more than 1.2 million students participated in that election.