It was 1956 and I was staying with my paternal grandparents for a few days. At age 5, I don’t remember much of that day except that just before grandpa came home from his factory job, grandma took a bath and put on what we used to call “getting dressed up clothes”. When grandpa came home, he took a bath and put on a suit and tie. It was weird.
Hmmmm. I wondered what was up. It wasn’t Sunday so it wasn’t time to go to church and I hadn’t heard about plans to go out or about any funeral services. I had spent the day playing and trying to stay out of the way of the housework that was being done.
A coat got put on me, we got into the car, and parked in front of a building where we got out and walked inside. I asked where we were going.
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Grandma told me we were going to vote. Her family came here from Germany for freedom and opportunity when she was about 10. Part of being a citizen here, she told me, was the privilege of choosing our leaders and that we did that by voting. Voting was so important, she said, that it should be treated as a very special day. They never had the opportunity to vote “in the Old Country”.
She took me inside of this huge machine. She moved a large lever to the side and a curtain closed behind us. I was a bit startled at that, but she reassured me that this was to protect the secrecy of her vote. No one should know how you vote, she said. Your vote is up to you.
In front of us was a large machine with small metal levers next to many names. Grandma explained that you turned a lever in each of the listed offices to cast your vote for one person. She lifted me up and I turned the levers. “We’re voting for the Democrats”, she said. “Republicans are the party for the rich and they're just crooks and chiselers”, she added.
We finished voting and as a treat went to a local diner to have hamburgers before we went home to watch the results come in. I remember crying when they announced that Republican Dwight Eisenhower won. “Well, he’s not so bad” Grandma said. But I told her that I was upset because I thought I might have turned the wrong lever and voted him in! She reassured me that she watched me turn the levers and I voted correctly.
I did feel better, but that feeling that a single vote matters never left me.
In 1972, I turned 21. The voting age had recently been lowered to 18, a good thing, but it wasn’t soon enough to let me vote in an earlier election. I was a commuter student and registered to vote on campus. I worked with the Students for McGovern group handing out literature when there was a hole in my class schedule. Despite all my efforts, Nixon won a second term, which he wouldn’t finish. He really WAS a crook.
The importance of voting and being active during elections has stayed with me all these many years. There has never been any type of election where I didn’t show up. Even in 2012, a day after having surgery I was at the school voting. Every primary, midterm, recall, or special election — I’ll be there.
I credit that to Grandma and Grandpa who got dressed up, put on their 1950s hats, and went to vote in 1956 as if it was a very special occasion for instilling its importance in me for my entire lifetime. It really IS a special occasion.
I always vote in person. Maybe that’s a carryover from my grandparents, but I don’t get dressed up for it. Instead, I treat it as an important, but routine thing I do as an American. I encourage others to do the same. Normally, I phone bank or canvass, but neither has been possible due to my growing disability.
I used to vote right after work. Since I retired, I vote around 2 PM so I have an idea about voter turnout. I can tell by my voter number how the turnout has been. I won’t vote by mail since I worry that my ballot won’t get there, won’t get there on time, or will get tossed for whatever silly reason. With in person voting and computerized counting, I insert my ballot and stand there until it has been successfully recorded. I know it’s in there and hope that the secret ballot counting software hasn’t been jerry-rigged by some nefarious source or the private company that created it.
So, how do you vote? There’s a poll way at the end.
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