news-record.com

If the children of Guilford County had their way, Sen. Barack Obama would lead the nation and Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue would become governor.

More than 18,000 young people participated in the local Kids Voting event. The program allowed children in all grades to go to any polling place and fill out a special paper ballot.

"I voted for Obama because no other black man was the president, so I wanted to vote for him," 10-year-old Azian Alston said Friday after voting at Washington Elementary School.

Most voters were in the elementary and middle grades, and they welcomed the chance to cast ballots like their parents, Kids Voting volunteers said. Tuesday night's results were incomplete.

"This has been the most exciting election ... they picked it up," said Lola Anne McAdoo, who volunteered at Washington Elementary.

An estimated 2,500 volunteers in Guilford County helped to run the Kids Voting stations on Tuesday and on early voting days. Kids Voting-Guilford County, part of Kids Voting USA, began in 1996.

The News & Record is a sponsor of the event.

At Calvary Baptist Church in McLeansville, 10-year-old Bryce Kuehnle stood at a cardboard booth and carefully marked his ballot. He wouldn't reveal who he voted for, but he said he'd learned about the different candidates and branches of government at school.

And Bryce, whose father Chad Kuehnle called him "my little politician,'' has first-hand experience in running for office. His recently ran a successful campaign to become lieutenant governor of his fourth-grade class at McLeansville Elementary School.

Contact Jamie Kennedy Jones at 449-4610 or jamie.kennedy@news-record.com