Take Your Kids to the Voting Polls

With the mid-term primary season well underway and the 2014 mid-term elections quickly approaching, I encourage all parents to take their kids to the voting polls, if at all possible.  Whenever my wife and I vote, we try to take our daughters with us when possible.  Although they are many years from being eligible to vote, introducing the voting process to them now will ingrain in them the importance of voting.  

Turnout rates in elections in the U.S. are very low.  Presidential elections may hit 60%, low compared to the the rest of the world.  Mid-term (non-presidential) elections have a much lower turnout rate.  The 2010 mid-term election had a national turnout rate of about 40%.  Primary elections are even lower.  My county had a 2010 mid-term primary election turnout of 22%.  This year's mid-term primary election brought out less than 11% of the county's electorate.  Yikes!  That's low!  89% of the electorate stayed home and did not vote.  What kind of message does that send to today's youth?  Not a good one, that's for sure.  

You can do your part in raising these numbers by:

1.  Voting yourself.

2.  Taking your kids to the polls, explaining voting, and showing them how to vote.

Politically active parents will make politically active kids.