Candidates stress value of voting to isle students

Gubernatorial candidates James "Duke" Aiona and David Ige were treated like celebrities — cheered on by scores of screaming fans decked out in red, white and blue, toting hand-painted posters — at a student pep rally Wednesday at Maryknoll School.

The Republican and Democratic candidates for governor, along with congressional candidates Mark Takai and Charles Djou and alumna state Rep. Della Au Belatti, took turns emphasizing the importance of voting to the private school’s more than 1,250 students.

"It was such an honor having them in front of me and so surreal just talking to them," said eighth-grader Lyric Medeiros, the elected student body president for the school’s K-8 grades.

"Studying social studies here, I’ve learned that voting is such an awesome privilege that we have," the 13-year-old added. "The representatives talked about how voting is so important, that we should vote, and I totally agree with that, and as soon as I’m 16, I will be right there registering."

Maryknoll senior Travis Baguio, senate president for the high school, said some of his fellow students aren’t engaged in student government elections and hopes events like Wednesday’s rally will encourage them to be more civic-minded.

"Having this kind of assembly will, especially for our seniors who are moving on with our lives, it’ll get us in the mindset that, ‘Oh, yeah, we have a civic duty to vote and be a part of our government,’" Baguio, 16, said. "It’s a good way to get us thinking about the world around us."

The school organized the event with the nonprofit We Vote Hawaii to get students excited about the upcoming general election. The students were scheduled to cast online ballots later that day as part of We Vote Hawaii’s mock election.

A similar event is scheduled for next week at Kaiser High School in East Oahu.

The nonprofit — an affiliate of Kids Voting USA and formerly known as Kids Voting Hawaii — is a statewide youth civic engagement project that educates students about civic responsibility and the voting process.

Since 1996 the nonprofit has given public, private, charter and home-schooled students the opportunity to practice voting in Hawaii’s general election. Some 122,000 students cast their votes in the 2012 general election.

"While voting may be this big idea that the younger students may not fully understand yet, little by little, as they vote every two years starting in kindergarten, they begin to see that we are a part of these people we elect, and there will be more of a connection and responsibility to vote," said Lyla Berg, a former state legislator and founder of We Vote Hawaii.

At the Maryknoll event, Aiona, the Republican nominee for governor and a former lieutenant governor, told students that voting is a fundamental right.

"There is no good reason not to vote," he said. "I hope you vote as knowledgeable voters — in other words, that you study the candidates. But with that, I hope you won’t lose that contact that you need, to be personal, to get involved."

Aiona said he recently shared a similar message with elementary students at Maemae Elementary and Island Pacific Academy.

Ige, a state senator running as the Democratic nominee for governor, also emphasized the importance of voting and encouraged students to get involved in community service.

"Public service and running for office is really about the desire to make a place better, to be committed to solve problems, to work hard and to improve our communities," he said.

Former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, the Hawaii Independent Party candidate, hadn’t been invited to the event, but said in an interview that he, too, stresses the importance of voting when he visits about 40 schools statewide each year.

"It’s always a part of my message to students that they get in the habit of doing it early on," he said. "I share my example, that in 1972 … when they lowered the voting age to 18, I was a freshman in college, and I voted then and haven’t stopped."