There are but days to go before the 2020 presidential election. Millions of Americans have already voted — but there’s still a lot we can do to make our voices heard.
And while most kids can’t vote — yet — they can still be a part of it all.
Learning and listening
“The KQED Bay Curious podcasts on the California propositions on the ballot are really helpful and mostly kid-friendly,” says Leila Sinclaire, a mother of 11- and 9-year-old kids in San Rafael, California.
Coming along for the ride
Liz Bolton, a mother of two in Ketchikan, Alaska, says her 6-year-old has been involved at just about every step, from watching the debates to helping to get out the vote and playing the Election Night! board game. “She has sat in on my Zoom meetings with organizers and other volunteers doing relational outreach. She came with me to pick up signs and was involved in putting them in the ground," says Bolton. "She’s more into it than I expected her to be!”
Dreaming of 2024
“My 14-year-old is dreaming of 2024 and stays up late to watch all the debates,” says Jody Mercier, a mother of three in New York City. “He watches a far more diverse cast of commentators than my husband and I.”
Picturing a better future
“I'm sending out 110 GOTV [Get Out the Vote] letters through Sierra Club, and my daughter, bless her heart, is drawing a little picture on every single one,” says Sari Fordham in Riverside, California. “She has a system, and she mutters, ‘This will get them to vote.’ She's 6.”
Navigating the new normal
“This will be the first election of their lives that we haven't brought them to the polls, which I'm a little sad about,” says Amber Williams, a mother of a 5- and 7-year-old in Los Angeles. She and her husband have shown them their ballots and told them why they couldn’t barge into the office during a phone-banking session. “I'm thinking we'll bring them along for the ride when we drop off our ballot at a drop box,” she says.
Getting a civics lesson
“My husband is a historian,” says Catherine Off, a mother of two in Missoula, Montana. “He is using this voting experience to teach the kids a civics lesson. They’re going through the entire ballot together.”
Letting them fill in the bubble
Kimberly Jung, a mother of two in Los Angeles, gave her two school-age kids the pen. "The kids got to look at the ballot, and each got to fill in the circle for [president]," she says.
Having the conversations
When Iva Marie Palmer, a mother of two in Burbank, California, phone-banked, she let her older son be a stand-in voter to practice the scripts for different issues. “We also talked about a lot of the propositions, especially a local one for rent control, which he’s gotten very into lately, I think due to fear that some of his fave mom-and-pops might not survive the pandemic,” she says.
Voting — together
For Aaron Trahan, a father of four in Camarillo, California, it was a landmark year. “We voted,” he says. He and his 18-year-old daughter filled out their ballots together. “Happy to be part of her first time voting at such an important time!” he says.
