HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Over 625 Kids Voting students from Reno County visited official polls today and cast ballots on the same candidates as adult voters.
The kids elected the Republican Sam Brownback-Jeff Colyer ticket for governor and lieutenant governor over Democrats Paul Davis and Jill Docking by 48 percent to 40 percent. Libertarian Keen Umbehr received 12 percent.
In other races, K-12 students in the Hutchinson, Buhler and Nickerson-South Hutchinson school districts, plus Holy Cross Elementary School, voted to re-elect Republican Pat Roberts for U.S. Senate over independent Greg Orman. In the U.S. House race, Republican incumbent Tim Huelskamp defeated Democrat James Sherow.
In other state races, students re-elected an all-Republican slate for state offices – secretary of state, state treasurer, attorney general and insurance commissioner.
“Watching the kids come to the polls today was an amazing experience, and the same can be said of working with the Kids Voting Task Force,” said Ryan Diehl, Kids Voting Reno County Task Force co-chairman.
“It was a great honor to be part of the democratic process. It’s very important to teach kids at a young age about their civic duty,” said David Sotelo, program co-chair and Hutchinson High School senior.
This was the third election for the Kids Voting program in Reno County. In 2012, over 1,000 students here voted in the presidential election.
Kids Voting USA is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that teaches K-12 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 Hutchinson Rotary Club and The Hutchinson News.