Maya H sent this sweet story in over the weekend as “a reminder to parents to take their kids with them to vote.” She says,
I love Election Day–possibly my second favorite day of the year, after Thanksgiving. I love going to the polls, waiting in line with my neighbors, who are all in civic-minded moods and happy to chat. I love giving my voter card to the 80 year old woman who works my polling place, who dutifully asks me to repeat my name and address and sign my name in the book. I love looking at the screen, making my selections, and pushing the vote button.
But mostly I love it because it makes me think of my mom.
My mom raised me and my sister by herself, which means she rarely had any spare time for anything. But she never missed an election day–not city council, not school board, not anything. She would always take us with her, down to our elementary school where she voted. The day before, I’d sit at the kitchen table with her and a sample ballot. I’d read the races out to her, and she’d tell me what box to mark. And then on election day, once we’d waited in a long line, we’d all–my mom, my sister and I–go into the voting booth together. New Mexico, where I grew up, had electronic voting machines decades ago, before it became popular across the country. So my sister and I would take turns pushing the buttons next the names my mom read off the sample ballot we’d filled out, and when we were done, and she’d checked all the names, she’d push the big green VOTE button down at the bottom.
The first political race I really was old enough to have any memories of was 1992, when I was 11. But I remember election days much farther back than that–kindergarten, or maybe first grade. I remember wanting to be old enough to push the VOTE button. It seemed like an important, grown up, thing to do.
And so on my 18th birthday, I went to the local library to get a voter registration form, and mailed it that day. And every election day since–municipal primaries, schools boards, sheriff–I’ve gone into the polling booth, selected my candidates, and pushed the big green VOTE button at the end.
And then I call my mom, and make sure she’s voted, too.
I think I’m going to finagle a way to get my boy to the polls this election day.
Some folks have been asking about whether the homeless have a right to vote, considering they often don’t have a permanent address with which to register. The National Coalition for the Homeless has a state-by-state chart detailing the rules. The answer seems to be that yes, theoretically, they can vote, but in some states there are more obstacles than in others. (H/T)
IF YOU HAVE A STORY TO SHARE email fauxrealtho at gmail dot com with “VOTE” in the title. You still have through early October to get registered to vote in the 2008 presidential election.
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I love that story.
My mom was the same way. She never missed an election and she took all of us with her and Dad to vote. She also generally worked in the elections, sometimes inside the polling place (also my grade school), but usually driving elderly people to their polling place or in some other kind of get out the vote effort. And as soon as we were old enough, we did the same.
These days, I don’t work the polls anymore, as I’ve moved away from home and I don’t usually have time, but voting is still a big deal for me. I do always volunteer to help with GOTV efforts before elections and I’ve driven on election days when I can get off work. When my husband got his citizenship in 2004, the first thing he did after the ceremony was register to vote and it was a huge deal for him, as he’d lived here for almost 20 years before he was able to do so. But even before he got his citizenship, voting was still a family affair, as mine had to count for all of us. We never miss an election and we always, always take the kids with us to vote. They love pushing the buttons and getting the stickers and it makes them feel like they’re involved in the process as well.
My mom & dad always took me to vote with them.
I loved it. They’d let me hold the pin and I’d get an “I VOTED” sticker that I’d wear all day long. I had opinions and everything.
I remember the Reagan campaign when I was about 4/5yrs old and telling my parents not to vote for the guy.
It all came crashing down when I was 7 and my mom refused to vote for the guy I wanted. I looked up at her and said, “Mommy, am I really voting?”
I remained disenchanted for the next 10 years, but promptly applied for my voter registration card when I turned 17 and 1/2.
That’s a really lovely story. I wish my parents were like that, but sadly not. Most of the time they don’t even bother to vote. It’s probably better since they would almost always vote for the most misogynistic candidate running.
My mom sometimes took me in along to vote.
When I turned 16 (in my county of Germany, that’s the age at which you can vote in the local elections) we went in together.
Even when I was really little, we’d discuss that stuff around the kitchen table, who to vote for, and why.
As a grown up though, I must confess I’ve become too disillusioned to bother.
The last two times I voted was when there were extreme right wing candidates running for the senate of my city and actually looked like they had a chance.
Other than that though, it’s hard not to lose your faith in the system when your country is governed by a “Big Coalition”. That means both the major parties got together to form a government.
Imagine it didn’t matter who you vote for, because the only difference would be if Obama got to be president with McCain as vice president, or vice versa.
My parents always watched the major convention speeches for both parties, every debate, and what felt like every major interview with the candidate from either party. I remember being bored out of my skull as a little kid and complaining about wanting to watch something else but they would always tell me it was their civic duty and it was extremely important that they be as informed as possible. That defiantly wore off on me. My dad uses a wheelchair and often he could not access the polling places so he would have me run his absentee ballot into the building for him or we’d go as a family so my mom could help him over a curb or whatnot. That all made a huge impact on me. Now my kids are begging to watch cartoons instead of the debates. :)
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