If this year's election were left up to area children, the elephants at the Cincinnati Zoo could breathe a sigh of relief and two incumbents on city council would get the boot.
The results of Kids Voting showed kindergartners through 12th-graders have different agendas than their parents.
The voter education program, in its second year, provides students with an opportunity to go to their neighborhood polls to cast ballots alongside adult voters.
Unfortunately for Cincinnati Zoo officials, their votes don't count - yet.
Of the 12,545 children who voted on Issue 3, the zoo levy, 69.2 percent were in favor of the 0.7-mill levy.
The elderly services levy, referred to on the ballot as Issue 5, passed with 78.3 percent of the children's vote.
In all, 17,500 students took part in Kids Voting Ohio/Southwestern, said Sally Laib-Taylor.
A pilot program was also conducted in Clermont County, where 2,483 children voted at 25 polling sites, she said.
''Turnout was lower than it was last year,'' she said. ''But last year, we had the boost of a presidential election.''
In the Cincinnati City Council race, 7,534 children voted, picking Roxanne Qualls, Dwight Tillery and Tyrone Yates, respectively, as their top three choices.
Newcomers Rosemary Meyer and Jim Tarbell took the last two seats on council, beating out incumbents Bobbie Sterne and Todd Portune. On special ''Student Opinion'' issues, 51.7 percent of the young voters were in favor of curfews, but only 27.5 percent were in favor of school uniforms.
More telling about the area's young people was the result of a vote on year-round schools.
More than 2,400 students actually voted for year-round school, while 10,058 were against the summer-ruining notion.
Kids Voting is a private, non-partisan, non-profit community and school-based organization dedicated to educating young people about the importance of an informed electorate and about voting to sustain democracy.
In its first year here, nearly 250 public, private and parochial schools participated in the curriculum and more than 46,000 students cast a Kids Voting ballot.
