By Laurel Wyckoff

When pediatrician Sherri Alderman requested our help to sponsor children’s elections around town, I knew from my experience in the arts that we had a winning formula. In the world of dance, every ballet company raises their largest chunk of operating capital each year by presenting the Nutcracker ballet. Along with their prima ballerina and the other professional dancers, the stage is packed with sugar plum fairies, waltzing flowers, and other dancing children. Some companies even have children’s choirs perform in the lobby before performance and at intermission. The kids bring the audience with them. The theater seats are filled with parents, aunts and uncles, grand parents, brothers and sisters of the dancing kids.

Our children’s elections had the same effect throughout New Mexico. Kids of all ages were so excited to take part in a historic presidential election. How could a parent say, “that’s great, but we don’t care about voting.” Children brought their parents with them to five Bernalillo County early voting sites. Some parents told poll workers that they came to vote early just because of the children’s presidential elections. 

Children’s elections took place in more than 30 sites. Tiny kids too young to read voted using pictures as their guides. Ballots left over from our official early voting sites went to schools that held their own children’s elections on November 4th. The elections became part of the curriculum for early education workshops. 

Being a swing state it was sometimes hard to get the media to pay attention to our events as the presidential candidates repeatedly swept through our communities. Even so, the children’s election caught their imagination. Television and newspaper reporters sandwiched our election between other campaign news items. On three consecutive Saturday mornings KUNM radio’s Children’s Hour focused on the importance of voting and the democratic process. They also featured our children’s election and announced the final results. 

»Read Election Results

Organizing our communities through childcare centers and schools worked especially well because of our family-centered Hispanic influenced culture. It has been said that some children learn to walk later in life because their families love to carry them around so much. 

While many of our early childhood sites did not need an incentive, our Get-Out-the-Vote contest created a buzz around the whole process. More than 60 centers signed up to become Every Child Matters sites. They agreed help us register and educate families and get them out to vote. We all focused most of our energy on early voting. In some precincts almost 75% of the electorate voted early. Prizes include children’s books and early learning materials available from Lakeshore. A generous donation from Lakeshore added a fourth gift certificate to award our winning sites. 

Another advantage we have in New Mexico is that the Halloween celebration extends into Dia de los Muertos. The pumpkin bags and stickers were still attracting attention throughout the weekend following trick-or-treat night. Both made their appearance among the celebrating calaveras (skeletons).

While it was sometimes hard to get our congressional candidates’ attention - many did not repsond to our pleas to return our surveys - our constant nudging resulted the appearance of children in campaign ads and children’s issues in political speeches. Inviting candidates to Step Up For Kids Day helped focus their attention on our issues and we were able to keep our issues in their thoughts until the election. Our new office holders are now more aware of organizations working to improve the lives of children. It will be hard for them to forget what they have learned when they go to Washington. 

Our tiny band of warriors for kids had a lot of ground to cover in the fifth largest state in the USA. We could never have accomplished so much without the support and guidance from our many partners. Our thanks go to The Early Childhood Action Network (ECAN), HELP New Mexico, Let’s Vote New Mexico, The New Mexico Association for the Education of Young Children (NMAEYC), The Bernalillo County Clerk, The New Mexico Forum for Youth and Community, Youth Development Inc. The Center for Civic Policy, The five Bernalillo County Public Libraries, and New Mexico Voices for Children all played starring roles in our success. There were may others working behind the scenes, too, and we are grateful to you all.

 -Laurel, Robert, and the rest of the ECM in NM team.