Santa Cruz County has teamed up with Kids Voting California to educate younger students and spread awareness about voting.
Education can go a long way.
The program begins in the classroom with our hands-on curriculum and culminates on Election Day when students go with their parents to the official polling place and vote on the same issues and candidates. Three businessmen from Arizona created the national program, Kids Voting USA 1989 after returning from a fishing trip in Costa Rica. Because of plane trouble, the three men had to stay an extra day in Costa Rica - a day that happened to be Costa Rica's Election Day, which is a national holiday there. The three men noticed that families were going to the polls together, and later discovered that Costa Rica has a program that allows children to vote with their parents. As a result the voter turnout in that country is between 85 and 90 percent.