The votes are in and kids have chosen Joseph R. Biden as the winner of Nickelodeon’s 2020 Kids Pick the President “Kids’ Vote.” Biden received 53% of the vote, followed by President Donald J. Trump with 47%. Almost 90,000 individuals cast their virtual ballot in Nick’s “Kids’ Vote” poll from Oct. 20 to Oct. 26. Kids Pick the President is an informal, non-scientific poll, with guidelines that allow for one vote to be counted per household device so that multiple children and individuals per residence may exercise their vote.
Nickelodeon statement on “Kids’ Vote” results: “Though kids are not of an age to vote, Kids Pick the President is a platform where their voices do count, and they deserve to be heard. And just as kids value honesty and fairness, so do we at Nickelodeon. Therefore, out of respect for kids everywhere and in the spirit of civic responsibility, we present the name of the winner based on votes cast fairly and within our stated guidelines of one vote counted per household device.”
Nickelodeon detected cheating on Wednesday, Oct. 21, when threads on online forums began discussing corrupting the Kids Pick the President site with fraudulent votes. Subsequently, more than 130,000 bot-generated votes were detected. Nickelodeon utilized a voter certification tool to identify these votes and to remove them, ensuring that only individually placed votes counted toward the total.
Nick’s Kids Pick the President “Kids’ Vote” initiative has been held for the last nine presidential election cycles and is designed to amplify kids’ voices and opinions and raise their awareness of the electoral process. Since the net’s inaugural “Kids’ Vote” in 1988, kids have correctly chosen the next U.S. president six out of the last eight elections.
Nick News: Kids Pick the President will encore each day leading into the election at the following times (ET/PT): Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 31, at 7 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 1, at 9 p.m., and Tuesday, Nov. 3 (election day), at 7 a.m. on Nickelodeon; Monday, Nov. 2, at 12 p.m. on TeenNick; and Thursday, Oct. 29, at 9 p.m. and Friday, Oct. 30, at 2 p.m. on Nicktoons. The telecast will also be available via Nickelodeon on Demand, the Nick App and Nickelodeon’s YouTube Channel beginning Wednesday, Oct. 28.