Research shows that learning about the election process at a young age can have a positive far-reaching impact.
Youth who were either encouraged to vote or taught how to register to vote in high school were more likely to head to the polls, participate in other civic activities and tended to be more knowledgeable about voting processes in general than their peers, according to a 2020 survey by the Tufts University-based Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
Those teenagers could also end up encouraging their parents or guardians to do the same and get more civically engaged. Mothers of teens who voted in their first eligible election were more likely to vote in the next presidential election. That “trickle-up” effect was more prevalent among less privileged families of color, a 2023 study by the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy found.
Many educators across the country, including here in Illinois, are introducing civics lessons to children at an even younger age to foster a sense of what it takes to be a good citizen.
Preschoolers may not be able to grasp what the three branches of government are. But age-appropriate voting exercises can help them learn how to make decisions, resolve conflicts and understand rule of the majority, while learning to take into account the rights of the minority, per the Illinois Early Learning Project.
Including voting in preschools, the Project says, also teaches other lessons, such as encouraging children to practice their verbal skills as they explain their ideas, and their counting skills as they tally up votes.
Experts stress that the most effective instructions don’t negatively affect a student or involve a voting decision that determines a fact or an issue everyone agrees on. They also shouldn’t be centered on actual candidates grown-ups are considering.
Neither Kamala Harris or Donald Trump appeared on the ballot for preschoolers at a Virginia classroom recently. Instead, they were tasked with choosing which cartoon dog they thought was the best character on “PAW Patrol.”
These assignments, while cuter than what unfolds at the polling booths, can still set a foundation for a more serious impact over the long term: hopefully boosting our country’s weak voter turnout. The numbers make the need clear: About two-thirds of voters cast their ballots in 2020, but that percentage was a high point: the highest rate for a presidential election since 1900, according to the Pew Research Center. In midterm elections, turnout is generally much lower. And among eligible voters who cast their ballots in the three elections between 2018 and 2022, only 37% bothered to vote in all three.
More than half of Americans between 18 and 29 said they intended to vote in next month’s presidential election, according to a survey conducted earlier this year by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. Young people do care about their communities and the world around them. Just ask the Northwestern University students who gathered last week to watch the vice presidential debate between Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — they were eager to hear about issues like climate change, as they told Sun-Times reporter Emmanuel Camarillo. But they were mostly eager to cast their vote.
Older Americans needn’t lecture. They should show instead that young people’s voices do matter and that voting can make a difference, as Columbia College professor Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin wrote in a recent op-ed.
We’ll know the actual voter turnout numbers, for the young and old, soon. Whatever those figures, “early” voting with a crayon can help color a future where more people are motivated to vote.
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