Community projects

Kids voting 2008 - general elections

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What is Kids Voting?

Kids Voting is part of the "Growing Active Citizens project", coordinated by Local Government New Zealand with support from a range of central and local government partners.

Kids Voting was developed in the United States and has been run successfully by Auckland City Council since 2001.

The council-led initiative was rolled out nationally in October 2007 during the local body elections. More than 80 schools and 8000 students from 43 city and district council areas took part.

Kids Voting provides an opportunity for young people, as leaders of the future, to understand the voting process.

Feedback from 2007 suggested the council-developed Kids Voting project was successful in raising awareness among young people about New Zealand's electoral processes and increasing personal understanding, belief and confidence in the system.

Purpose

To educate and raise awareness about the 2008 general election process among young people of intermediate and secondary school ages (years 7 to 10) by participation in a voting exercise, with the intention these students will become well-informed and active citizens, who are engaged in the democratic processes within their communities.

Objectives:

to promote an understanding of this democratic process among young people
to provide classroom activities that raise awareness about the election process
to gain the involvement of a diverse range of school students
to create collaboration between Auckland City Council and Auckland city schools.

National roll-out

In partnership with Local Government New Zealand and other local authorities, Kids voting was rolled out nationally in 2007 targeting year nine students.

The Kids voting pack on the national website has been created generically to suit all local authorities in New Zealand, and therefore only uses parts of Auckland City Council's Kids voting package.Visit the Kids Voting website for more information.

While interested schools must register nationally and will be able to download voting forms, results sheets, a candidate list, candidate profiles and evaluation forms and other information, more resources are available free to schools within Auckland City Council boundaries. Contact us to find out more.

Evaluation from 2007

Kids Voting 2007 was comprehensively evaluated. Results showed the programme was a success and resulted in increased student understanding of elections and belief that voting makes a difference.

The majority of teachers and council staff who took part felt the project met its purpose. Furthermore, many councils found Kids Voting helped build relationships with teachers and schools in their area, opening up the potential to work more closely in future.

Updated April 2008