Frankenstein, Golden Retriever Secure Edina's Youth Vote for City Council

If a few Edina children had their way, Frankenstein and Tucker the golden retriever would win seats on Edina City Council.

Edina students too young to officially take part in Election Day were still able to cast ballots, as the third-ever Kids Voting Edina took place at the city's 20 polling places Tuesday evening. Tim Webb brought his son and daughter, Finley and Madigan, to vote for their choices in both local and national races at Highlands Elementary School.

"They have been learning all about the election in school, so they're super excited about this," Webb said.

Finley, 8, opted to vote for Barack Obama for president, but was too shy to say why he voted that way. Luckily, his 6-year-old sister was willing to share her brother's reasoning.

"He always says that Romney doesn't care about the poor," Madigan said.

"They might have some strong opinions from their incredibly liberal mom," Webb joked.

When the Webb children realized they could write-in any candidate of their choice for Edina City Council, Finley opted to put his own name on the ballot. Madigan—taking Edina's best interests to heart—wrote in Tucker, the Webb family's golden retriever.

Nashad, 7, and Tiger Kumar, 5, also came to Highlands Elementary School to cast mock ballots on Election Day. Tiger pulled no punches when asked about his candidate of choice.

"I wish I could vote for Barack Obama three times," he said. "I just like him."

School Board Member Sarah Patzloff was one of more than 120 volunteers staffing the Kids Voting Edina sections at Edina's precincts from 4-8 p.m. Tuesday night. Patzloff, who was elected in 2011, said she was definitely interested in helping when the opportunity came up to volunteer at the mock polls.

"My kids came two years ago and took part in this, so it's fun to help out with this," Patzloff said. "I've seen kids go right in and they don't want help from mom and dad and I've seen some who want mom and dad to come along and give them a hand."

Julie Rogers Bascom, service-learning coordinator with Edina Public Schools, coordinates the nonpartisan program as a way of getting Edina kids invested in the democratic process.

"In general, communities that implement the program see a 5-percent voter turnout increase," Rogers Bascom said. "The kids go home and say, 'Mom/dad/caregiver, you need to take me to the polls because I want to vote.' It gets them in the habit of voting."

Educators with Edina Public Schools also spend time in the weeks and days leading up to Election Day working the concept into their social studies curriculum. 

Rogers Bascom said Rosie Rink, a teacher at Creek Valley Elementary School, taught her students about voting by offering them a choice between a box of cookies and a box of crackers for a snack. Unsurprisingly, students overwhelmingly voted in favor of enjoying the cookies as a snack. But when Rink opened the box to show them what was inside, they found it was actually filled with crackers.

"It was a lesson for students in looking beyond outside appearances of candidates and being active in learning as much as you can about them before voting," Rogers Bascom said.

See full coverage of Edina's local races on our results page.

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