Democratic candidates won handily Tuesday in Kids Voting in Douglas County.

But the big winner was the effort to get young people interested in the electoral process, according to organizers of the volunteer educational program.

“We broke a record by around 800 votes,” Teresa McGuire, a member of the Kids Voting committee, said as she finished counting vote tallies Tuesday night at Lawrence High School.

As Ruthi Rapp, co-chairwoman of Kids Voting, called in the Douglas County results to the state, McGuire said the unofficial turnout in the county was 3,003 votes.

“That is actually up from 2004, when we had 2,200,” Rapp said. “That’s pretty good, considering they had to be accompanied by an adult to vote.”

The unofficial results of the top seven races in Douglas County were as follows:

¢ Governor: Democrat Kathleen Sebelius, 2,192; Jim Barnett, 614.

¢ Kansas 2nd District Congress – Democrat Nancy Boyda, 578; incumbent Republican Jim Ryun, 405.

¢ Kansas 3rd District Congress – incumbent Democrat Dennis Moore, 717; Republican Chuck Ahner, 181.

¢ Attorney general – Democrat Paul Morrison, 850; incumbent Republican Phill Kline, 529.

¢ Secretary of State – Democrat David Haley, 700; incumbent Republican Ron Thornburgh, 456.

¢ Treasurer – Democrat Larry Wilson, 737; incumbent Republican Lynn Jenkins, 605.

¢ Insurance commissioner – incumbent Republican Sandy Praeger, 623; Democrat Bonnie Sharp, 578.

Kids Voting booths were set up in almost all of the county’s polling places. The local effort was sponsored by the Journal-World, the county’s school districts and the Roger Hill Volunteer Center.

Some 400 people volunteered in the effort, said Margaret Perkins-McGuinness, manager of the Roger Hill Volunteer Center.

Fran Bartlett, LHS government teacher, organized about 90 LHS students at the library who volunteered their time to help count ballots. Students were offered volunteer hours for National Honor Society and extra credit for social science, history or government classes, Bartlett said.

Julia Barnad, 17, a senior and co-president of the LHS Young Democrats, said the most important part of the program was building the habit of voting in students.

Sam Goodwin, a third-grader from Sunflower School, helped his mother, Sue Goodwin, bring in a box of ballots to the polling place.

Sam said he voted for Kathleen Sebelius for governor.

“I liked voting. It made me feel good,” he said.