An attractive, round-faced woman announces her plans to improve the world.

        Two hands — one black, one white — clasp over a field of rhetoric from equality-themed speeches and documents.

        A message on voting rights is accompanied by colorful national flags for representation and emphasis.

        These are the winners in the Kids Voting Cartoon Contest, sponsored by Kids Voting/Southwest Ohio, a program that promotes citizenship, public affairs and voting, and The Cincinnati Enquirer.

        Jim Borgman, the Enquirer's cartoonist, and Kids Voting staffers selected the winners from more than 1,000 entries. The contest was organized to help celebrate Mr. Borgman's 25th year at the Enquirer.

        The winners:

        • Devin Grimm, an eighth-grader at Indian Hill Middle School who entered the clasped hands image under the category, The American Dream.

        “I like the simple, bold image in the foreground against the verbal background, which serves to deepen the message,” Mr. Borgman says. “As a cartoonist, I also appreciate how tough it is to draw hands in a complicated embrace, and I admire the ambition of Devin's challenging pose.”

        • Allison Bartell, a sixth-grader at Indian Hill Middle School who drew the woman in politics, surrounded by language pertaining to rain forests, peace treaties and a key to the city. Category: The Ideal Candidate.

        “The straightforward sincerity of Allison's message won my heart,” Mr. Borgman says. “There is no artifice here. Just a clear vision of how she intends to leave the world a better place.”

        • Paul Estes, a third-grader at St. Andrew St. Elizabeth Seton School, Milford. Category: Election Day.

        “The point of Paul's drawing couldn't be clearer or crisper. This third-grader did some research — which countries are non-democratic, what are their flags — and laid out his case in a compelling way. I wish all of my cartoons were so direct!”

        In addition to getting their cartoons published in the Enquirer, the winners will receive artist supply kits, autographed sketches and books from Mr. Borgman and a tour of paper's newsroom.

        “We got a good variety, cross section of schools — parochial, private, city, county” — to enter the contest, says Jeanne Rolfes, executive director at Kids Voting.

        “We left it up to the classroom teachers to decide if it would be a social-studies or art project,” she said. “Most did it as an art project.”

        The contest was open to students in the third through 12th grades. It was announced in letters mailed to more than 300 Tristate schools in the Kids Voting network in Hamilton and Clermont counties.

        Theme categories: The American Dream (Devin), The Ideal Candidate (Allison), Election Day (Paul) and Why You Should Vote.

        Winners were selected from grade groups.

        The contest was designed to “encourage students to learn more about the democratic processes,” Ms. Rolfes says.

        “Jim (Borgman) is a fine friend of Kids Voting,” she says. “He spoke to our national conference, and he said if there was any money to be made (from the observance of his anniversary), he would like it to go to Kids Voting.

        “He is a wonderful friend of our agency.”

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