AUSTIN — They may not be old enough to vote. They’re not even tall enough to use the voting machines. But for elementary students in a Central Austin neighborhood, that’s not stopping them from encouraging others to do their civic duty.
Inside the classrooms at Gullett Elementary, students have decorated more than 600 signs so far that read “I voted, have you?”
The signs, covered in a plastic slip to make them weatherproof and stapled to a wooden stake, are going up in the yards of Allandale homeowners who have already voted.
In all, they will decorate more than 1,500 signs.
“We’re trying to increase Texas’s abysmal voter turnout in mid-term elections,” said Bob Hendricks, the man behind the signs.
Hendricks, a former school teacher, came up with the idea to get elementary students involved to teach them about voting, in addition to encouraging his fellow Allandale neighbors to vote.
And it appears to be working: so far, early voting totals are up much higher than they were in the last midterm elections in 2014. They’re at 26 percent for the first week of early voting in Travis County, compared to 9 percent in 2014.
The creative, colorful “I voted, have you?” signs can be found all over Allandale now. Hendricks says people get a kick out of the signs.
"I go to the door and they say ‘oh, I already voted’ and I tell them why I'm there and they say ‘oh that's so cool! Yes put one on my yard!’”
Hendricks has recruited help from the local girl scouts and cub scouts to distribute the signs.