Wednesday, September 29, 1999
Youngsters get a sample of how politics works
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
If grown-ups had as much fun voting on Election Day as 2,600 Cincinnati-area school kids did at Coney Island on Tuesday, low voter turnout would no longer be a problem.
Kids Voting of Southwestern Ohio, part of a nationwide organization aimed at teaching children the importance of voting, invited bus loads of youngsters, from kindergarten to high school, to roam the picnic grounds to meet candidates and hear some old-fashioned political stump-speaking.
They came away with arm loads of buttons, bumper stickers, campaign fliers, kitchen magnets and emery boards bearing the names of candidates, and — their teachers hoped — a better sense of what politics and running for office is all about.
“This is a great thing because it's important that kids grow up to be voters,” said Ann Topia, a senior at Northwest High School.
Miss Topia said the one event in her life that convinced her of the importance of voting was a recent trip to the Toledo area, where, on the banks of the Maumee River, she watched 100 people sworn in as U.S. citizens.
One of them was her 76-year-old grandmother, who came to the United States 50 years ago from Mexico.
“I could see how excited she was at finally having a vote,” Miss Topia said.
Tuesday, many of the 2,600 students voted in their own election in makeshift voting booths on the picnic grounds.
They registered their opinions on a number of issues dear to them — whether students should pick school menus, whether school uniforms should be required, or whether school should be in session year-round.
The Kids Voting rally was the kickoff for the organization's fall campaign to involve youngsters in politics, a campaign that will culminate in students voting in their own election on Election Day.
Long tables were set up where about a dozen candidates for Cincinnati City Council, Cincinnati school board and some Clermont County offices passed out campaign brochures and signed autographs for the kids.
Democratic council candidate Charlie Luken, until recently a TV news anchor, asked one group of girls crowded around his table whether they had watched him do the news on TV. Yes, they screamed.
“No, you didn't, or else I'd still be on,” Mr. Luken responded.
On stage in the picnic grounds shelter, fifth-grader Samantha Naegele waited with about 50 other fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders from Cheviot Elementary School to sing the national anthem.
All the Cheviot students wore large badges on which they had written mini-essays on “What I Would Do If Elected Mayor.”
Samantha's was short and to the point.
If elected mayor, “I would take care of the people. I would keep the town clean and help the schools.”
Those things, she explained, “were the most important ones I could think of.”
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TRISTATE DIGEST
Youngsters get a sample of how politics works
