Nickelodeon declared Senator Barack Obama the winner of the 2008 Kids Pick the President “Kids’ Vote” Monday after an unprecedented 2.2 million votes had been cast in the network’s online poll.
Nickelodeon has held a “Kids’ Vote” every election year since 1988 with kids correctly predicting the country’s next president in four out of five of the last elections, only once incorrectly choosing Senator John Kerry instead of President Bush in 2004.
The “Kids’ Vote” comes as the culmination of a year-long Kids Pick the President campaign produced by Nickelodeon which included the Kids’ Primary, where kids accurately predicted that Senator Obama and Senator McCain would win their respective party tickets.
“Nickelodeon has a long history of empowering kids and providing them with an opportunity to voice their opinions,” said Cyma Zarghami, President, Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group. "The Kids Pick the President campaign has introduced them to the voting process, and hopefully will make them want to be active participants when they are old enough to vote.”
Nick.com has served as the Kids Pick the President home base, allowing kids to discuss the general election on a message board and to watch election-themed videos through Nickelodeon’s broadband video player, TurboNick. The site has attracted more than 2.5 million views since its launch in December 2007.
“It’s important to take note of who won the “Kids’ Vote,” simply because so many kids vote the way their parents will,” said Linda Ellerbee, host of Nick News who announced the winner on Monday. “But what really counts is this: they participated in democracy. They voted. How can this be anything but good?”
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