I ran an election this morning at my kids elementary school in a mostly Republican suburb of Phoenix, namely Chandler. It is a smallish, Montessori-based charter school including 2 year olds through 6th grade. Yesterday the elementary age kids were encouraged to register for today's voting. I brought in a ballot box covered with shiny wrapping paper to generate additional interest. 41 signed up and I heard from parents that the kids were very excited about casting real votes!
Today I brought in small paper ballots with the names John F. Kerry and George W. Bush printed on them. Half had Kerry first, half had Bush. (No third party, no "other") The kids went by me one at a time, were checked off the list, received a ballot, went behind a box to "Circle the guy you want, cross off the guy you do not want." They could drop the ballot into the box without anyone seeing their vote.
After everyone voted, I tore open the box and counted 23 for Kerry and 18 for Bush. I began announcing the results with a few words about how everyone gets to vote, no one gets to see your vote and that it is important to vote. Then the results, which garnered a small cheer.
This is one of the redder parts of AZ and kids this age mostly vote like their parents. However this sample is made from kids whose parents chose a Montessori charter school over a public or private one so it may not be valid to extrapolate that winning this school implies winning Chandler, which implies winning Maricopa Co. and thus AZ and thus the US in a landslide. (But I hope it will be so!)