AYUMI NAKANISHI / ANAKANISHI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Community, business and education leaders gathered at Farrington High School's amphitheater on Thursday to encourage students to vote. State Student Council President Samasoni Tiiti, 17, spoke at the beginning of the event.
Kids get chance Isle students won't have to leave the building to cast their votes for Hawaii's candidates for governor. They will do it online from personal computers at home or school in the nation's only statewide Kids Voting E-lection.
to vote online
Kids Voting's Internet ballot
gives students a unique opportunityBy Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com
From Oct. 22 to Nov. 5, students in kindergarten through 12th grade will vote on online ballots that will look similar to the ballots their parents and other registered voters will cast in the Nov. 5 general election, said Lyla Berg, executive director of Kids Voting Hawaii.
The idea is get children to understand the importance of voting so they will vote when they turn 18.
But Kids Voting Hawaii board member Sterling Yee said he hopes student voter participation will stimulate discussions between parents and children and help encourage more adults to vote in the general election.
"In my view, we have to do something. Forty to 41 percent (voter turnout in the primary election) is not acceptable," he said.
In the Sept. 22 primary election, only 269,116 people cast ballots out of 667,679 registered voters, or 40.3 percent, the second lowest turnout in Hawaii history.
Results of the 2002 Kids Voting Hawaii E-lection will be announced at the Ala Moana Center's Centerstage after the polls close at 6 p.m. Nov. 5.
Yee, chief auditor for Hawaiian Electric Industries, helped create the Internet voting system with INETS and Commercial Data Systems. "Paper ballots are cumbersome at best," said Yee, recalling volunteers who spent almost two weeks to prepare for all the incoming ballots in past years.
The kids' attitudes toward voting online was "it's about time," Yee said. "They almost expected it."
More than 12,500 students have voted on paper ballots for the past three general elections since Kids Voting Hawaii was started here in 1996.
More than 400 schools have been registered to participate in this year's general election under Kids Voting Hawaii, an affiliate of Kids Voting USA.
The ballot also contains questions concerning youth-related issues such as whether the drinking age should be lowered to 18 from 21 and whether the driving age should be lowered to 15 from 16.
To vote, students in grades K-6 will receive their voter registration token number and card from their homeroom teacher. Students in grades 7-12 may receive their voter registration token number and card from their social studies teacher or another designated teacher. A token number along with the student's district and precinct number will be needed to cast a vote online.
Kids Voting Hawaii also offers a curriculum to educate students about why it's important to vote. School teachers are able to obtain the materials through the organization's Web site at www.kidsvotinghawaii.org.
