By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Kids Vote! Children like Ryan and Cassie Lei got
their chance to cast votes along with the adults in yesterday's
election. Five million kids across the country took part.

Turnout sparse,
but enthusiastic

Promoters hope for a
big showing in the 2000 elections

By Burl Burlingame
Star-Bulletin

The giant Bulovas in the center of Restaurant Row may be frozen at 2:36 and 4:12, but listen carefully -- the clock is ticking for the Kids Voting concept. A rally in the complex last night (Restaurant Row is a kind of Chuck E. Cheese for grown-ups, after all) kicked off the Hawaii edition of Kids Voting, an election-year staple in nearly 40 states.

Kids were urged to visit polling places with their parents, and given simplified ballots for the major races. Kids in grades 6 through 12 were also given a ballot that explored kids-only issues. Really divisive adult questions, like the same-sex yes-no query, were left off the kid ballots.

The rally, staged primarily for television, was sparsely but enthusiastically attended (it was a school night, after all), which mirrored participation in the event. The boozy adult venue at Restaurant Row created some curious sidelights, as when a bar stool citizen bellowed "Pack it in, Abercrombie, ya punk ... damn your eyes!" from a nearby open-air bar while kids read off results.

Zippa-de-doo-dah fast, ballots were electronically counted by American Savings Bank's data machines at Mililani Technology Park, a process that worked "flawlessly, like a charm," said Kids Voting Executive Director Lyla Berg.

By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Children had a chance to cast votes at the precincts yesterday.

After a bit of suspicion from polling station captains about surrendering space to kids, the actual voting process worked well. "Thanks to the Rotarians who manned each station. And the office of elections and the county clerks were awesome!" said Berg.

Although something like 185,000 potential kid voters lurked in public schools that received balloting information, only a shade under 50,000 kids voted. At Kaimuki High School, Sy Nashiro, 17, said that the school held an assembly to pitch the concept.

But at Radford High School, "if you looked really hard, you might have seen a poster," said Emilie Fagin, 17. "That's it. There wasn't a whole lot of kid-voting fervor going on. It wasn't for lack of information. The teachers just didn't push it."

"There were a lot of strong feelings about this election, about the con-con and the yes-no and the Lingle-Cayetano races, and the kids talked about it," said Candace Ridley, 16, also of Radford. "But the school didn't take advantage of that interest."

"We weren't really organized," admitted Waianae social-studies teacher Mike Rooney. "We were given a binder of information and told to drop it into the curriculum wherever it felt comfortable. I don't think many teachers did."

"Kids Voting isn't really about voting, it's about citizenship," explained Berg, who credited the Star-Bulletin's Kids Only pages with helping spread the word. "What it does is raise consciousness about participating in the democratic process. The year 2000 will be a big year nationally for Kids Voting. An estimated 5 million kids voted today nation-wide, and we hope to double that in two years."

The results Last night's results, which didn't vary by more than a percentage point from the first count to the last: GOVERNOR Cayetano/Hirono: 27,818, 57 percent Lingle/Koki: 20,175, 41 percent Peabody/Bartley: 874, 2 percent U.S. SENATE Inouye: 34,423, 73 percent Mallan: 3,404, 7 percent Young: 9,600, 20 percent U.S. REPRESENTATIVE 1 Abercrombie: 13,967, 54 percent Bedworth: 2,598, 10 percent Ward: 9,411, 36 percent U.S. REPRESENTATIVE 2 Mink: 12,450, 58 percent Chun: 2,929, 14 percent Douglass: 6,179, 28 percent MAUI MAYOR Arakawa: 1,409, 35 percent Apana: 2,671, 65 percent KAUAI MAYOR Kusaka: 1,466, 67 percent Thronas: 735, 33 percent