I’ve been alive during seventeen 4-year Presidential terms. I’ve lived through eight Democratic ones and, counting this current dystopian one, nine Republican ones. The first year I was eligible to vote was 1982 and I proudly mailed my New York [precise town redacted] absentee ballot from my Rochester NY college campus. It wasn’t a Presidential election year, but I was determined not to miss my first possible election! I am almost 100% sure I’ve never missed an even-numbered (State and Federal) election year, and I’ve missed very few odd-numbered (Municipal) elections especially since I moved to Massachusetts and eventually settled in the city I’ve called home for over 30 years.
It’s long been known that young people are often unlikely to vote. There are many reasons for that (as well as why so many other demographics do not turn out in high proportions), but this diary isn’t about that. What I want to share is my very own Voter Origin Story… why it’s so important to me to vote whenever the opportunity presents itself. Settle in and imagine yourself in early 1978 [cue spinning time travel wheel from 1960s television shows...]
It was spring 1978 and I was just finishing 8th grade, very excited about moving on to high school. My school district at that time had about 3200 students spread over four elementary schools that consolidated us all into one Junior-Senior High School campus. Geographically though, my district was HUGE… approximately 350 square miles. During Junior High, I had to be careful who I chose for project partners because some of my classmates were both (1) a 30-45 minute drive away; and (2) a long distance phone call so we couldn’t just call and chat. [If you’re too young to remember corded phones, please have someone explain “long distance call” and “evening/non-peak rates” and mind my lawn, please :).]
As a result of our geographic spread, the vast majority of us rode buses to school. My bus stop was a quarter mile from my house and forty of us boarded that bus every morning. In order to accomodate afterschool activities, extra help, etc, there were Late Bus routes twice during the afternoon that, while not the same as the regular buses, they got you closer to where you could either walk or be picked up by a parent.
Where I live now, our district is five square miles and there are no school buses. School budgets are part of the overall municipal budget and there is no direct vote by residents as to whether or not it passes or fails. Where I grew up it was a different story… residents voted annually on the School Budget. If it passed, yay! If it failed, and the district couldn’t get a revised budget to pass, what was funded was something my classmates and I *vividly* remember being called an Austerity Budget. Essentially, nothing that wasn’t mandatory got funded. No sports (unless families paid the full cost), changes to bus routes for kids that lived within a certain distance of schools, etc. Salaries were frozen, etc. I don’t remember all of what wasn’t funded, but it was a lot.
My mother worked for the school district. It was not a high-paying job and the annual cost of living or higher raise was important to my family (I mentioned our financial status in this past Monday’s Top Comments diary). And so it was that she got out there and committed Activism as the leadup to the second budget vote approached. MY mother, who I never remember taking part in electoral activism before, stood outside the perimeter of our town’s polling place with a sign encouraging people to vote FOR the budget. She talked to everyone who walked by. I was with her for a bit, and it’s likely I took that photograph of her.
That budget election failed by three votes. It was before the internet and I don’t live close enough to my childhood home to go search libraries for records of that time, but I have never forgotten my Mother crying and saying over and over, “three votes”. She was beyond upset at friends of hers that didn’t vote because they assumed it wouldn’t matter. And as a result, the first part of my first year of high school was under Austerity rules. There must have been a third budget vote because I remember running track in the spring, but friends VIVIDLY remember no football season and a lot of walking to and from school.
So that’s why I don’t miss elections. Why I encourage everyone who IS eligible to vote TO do so, and why I don’t tolerate political discussion from people who chose not to exercise their right to vote. Your voice is your vote, and every vote matters. Even in states so blue or so red that you believe your individual one doesn’t… it does. Especially in local elections, where turnout generally is abysmally low.
There’s a vitally important ballot question on next week’s municipal ballot (a Prop 2 ½ Override, for the Massachusetts knowledgeable) that will impact schools, services, and quality of life in my city for years to come. I voted early last Saturday, and will spend from 6am til at least 9:30pm making sure our election runs fairly, smoothly and that everyone legally able to cast a ballot who shows up, DOES. As an election worker and since I may link this on my social media I’m officially impartial and will leave my voting record up to your imagination :).
What’s your Voter Origin Story? Is there a particularly individual reason it’s important to you? Please share in the comments!
