I remember my first time in a voting booth. I went with my mother
to the polling place which was the Kindergarten of our local school. I went in with her as she pulled the booth's curtain behind her. I must have been about 5 because all I could see were her legs. An aside, my mother was a pacifist and a socialist who voted for Norman Thomas (he ran six times as the Socialist Party's candidate for president)... except when she voted for Stevenson. Of course. And way back when for FDR.
What's your experience voting been like?
INGRID THOFT: The single most critical thing I gleaned from my political science major in college was the importance of voting. We
studied political systems around the world, many of which don’t guarantee a vote for each citizen, and it’s been said before, but people in other countries really do die fighting for the right to vote. I always remember Winston Churchill’s quote: “Democracy is the worst system, except for all the rest.”In Washington State, we vote by mail so I haven’t been to a polling station for over ten years. I get to fill out my ballot in the privacy of my own home after consulting the various endorsements and researching the ballot initiatives. I pop it in the mail, and it’s done. It doesn’t get easier than that, Hallie!
JENN McKINLAY: Voting is your SUPERPOWER!!! I believe this all the way down to my squishy middle. When I was nine, I read a
biography and did a report about Elizabeth Cady Stanton. I have never forgotten it or the lessons it taught me about equal rights for women. Consequently, I have never missed an election, big or small, in my voting lifetime. In AZ, we can vote by mail and then we can track our mail-in vote on the state recorder's website to be sure it was counted, which I do - of course I do - because I'm anal like that. LOL!
RHYS BOWEN: I don't remember much about voting in England as I left in my early twenties, but John and I met in Australia where voting was compulsory. If you didn't vote you were fined. (Maybe that would be a good way for the government to raise money here!) Where we live now we have voted by mail for years. John and I sit with our voting papers and all the additional information and go through, line by line, discussing the ramifications of each ballot measure. Some of them are so convoluted that it's hard to see what they really mean and we usually look at who is backing them. I am so grateful we can do this in a slow and meaningful way. I don't know how people can not make mistakes in the stress of the voting booth.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I love to go to the polls and vote! We go to our local community center, where we know we are Ward 3 Precinct 3, and the nice poll workers are the same every year, and there's a bake sale in the hall. How cute is that? And we get "I voted" stickers, which I put on my phone. We have some very complicated ballot questions, and we're so determined to figure them out! And some difficult person or party decisions, too.
When was my first vote? Rats. I can't remember. But I remember going to the polls with my mom--my parents were the only ones in the neighborhood wearing Adlai Stevenson buttons.
LUCY BURDETTE: As for those proposition questions, who in the
world writes them? John and I tried for an hour to puzzle out what one in Florida was really about--and we're pretty smart people. They need writers on board!As for first time voting, I blush to admit I voted for Richard Nixon. Sigh. Anyway, I've done better than that over the years and honestly, it always feels good and right to have my say. So don't stay home!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: You know, Lucy, you voted. As a young woman, when young people have ALWAYS been underrepresented. So I say, wear your Nixon button proudly!
The Smithie wrote a column about voting where she pointed out one of the things that made her a voter was tagging along with her dad and me when we went to vote. We took our kids along every time we voted, and talked a lot about what it meant to us. Did you know the most sure-fire way to turn your kids into readers is to let them see you read for pleasure? It's the same way with voting. So literally, parents, do it for your kids.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I went with my mother, too, I remember
her pulling the curtain and showing me how the voting machine worked. I've always voted in national elections, but I have to admit there were some years when I was too busy or distracted and I didn't bother to vote in midterms or local races. No more!! I vote in every election for everything including run-offs. I study the candidates and the propositions. I voted absentee from London in 2016, which was the first time I'd ever filled in a mail-in ballot. And I mailed my ballot the week before I left for this trip to the UK. Even though I'm across the Pond I will be checking election results like mad. I, too, believe that voting is our superpower.The last couple of years my daughter and I have voted together, so I am missing that. She researches all the candidates, too, and never misses an election, so, yes, if you take voting seriously, chances are your kids will, too.
HALLIE: Please, tell us you've voted or are going to vote (and get a flu shot, please, too.) Anyone else remember when booths had curtains? Made it feel so mysterious.
