Nurturing Democracy,Citizenship and Civic Virtue: The Kids Voting Program Revisited

Abstract

The authors, who evaluated Kids Voting in 1990 when it was used by 675,000 students in Arizona (JSSR, 18:1, 1994), revisit the civic education program after its use by 4.5 million students in 40 states in 1996. This study provides a detailed overview of the research done in the past 10 years on the program, which is designed to increase student awareness and interst in elections, increase the chances they will vote as adults, and also boost the turnout of their parents. It also presents new findings on the 1996 KV program, based on interviews in five states with both voters who had children in the program and those who did not. Awareness of KV in 1996 was found to be very high and the program received high evaluations in all five states. Seventy percent of parents with children involved in Kids Voting said they took their children to vote with them; five percent said Kids Voting was one reason they voted in the presidential election. The program was associated with significant increases in turnout of younger voters and those with less education. The evidence of a small increase in turnout is consistent with studies conducted on Kids Voting 1988,1990,1992 and 1994.