EDITORIAL: Don’t just vote, talk to your kids about it

An admirable effort at a local school was profiled on these very pages on Wednesday.

As part of the Indiana Kids Election project, local attorney Scott Bieniek spoke to North Putnam High School students about the election process and the importance of citizen involvement.

One week after Bieniek’s presentation, the students will cast their own votes for president, U.S. senator and governor on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

It’s a process that mimics the real voting process as closely as possible, even requiring students to register to vote before casting their ballots.

This is an all together admirable collaboration between the Indiana State Bar Association, Indiana Secretary of State and the Indiana Department of Education. It will be even better if we can see it in every school across the state.

Still, it’s not enough.

While activities such as this in our schools matter, the attitudes, conversations and behaviors young people witness at home make an even bigger impact.

Civically minded kids tend to be the children of civically minded adults.

If you aren’t involved in the process, don’t expect your kids to break that cycle on their own.

If you are involved, don’t hide it from your children.

Let them see you reading the newspaper and watching the nightly news.

Expose them to the democratic process, from registration to the voter booth on through to the public meetings where the elected officials are in action.

Most importantly, talk about it in your home. It’s less important to tell your kids whom they should or should not vote for. They’re probably smart enough to figure out who you support anyway.

Instead, tell them how you arrive at your decision. What issues are you considering when you cast your ballot? Where do you get your information? Do you vote early or on Election Day? Why?

We live in a county where, despite heavy interest in recent elections, turnout stood at 59 percent in 2012 and at 61 percent in 2008.

Those numbers are in line with statewide turnout but they still leave two out of five registered voters not casting ballots.

While a unique presidential election is likely to drive 2016 turnout up both locally and nationally, the number could always be better.

If we want the next generation to be more involved our democracy, the process starts now.