Best day of the year

BH and I voted at 8am this morning, in our town hall, in a small room filled with cheerful volunteers. The left side of the room was Precinct #1 and the right side was Precinct #2. It was probably the last time I’ll have a chance to use the old-fashioned voting machines, with levers and a big handle that went thuuunk to register the votes.

While choosing our candidates, BH and I whistled Revolution, by the Beatles.

I love voting.

I vote so my government hears me speaking up.

Why do you vote?
If you aren’t old enough yet, why will you vote?

32 Replies to “Best day of the year”

  1. I can’t believe I spelled weather wrong

    I think it’s the coolest thing to go into that machine, plunk down the lever, and have a choice! Sometimes my mom doesn’t feel like voting because of the weather or she’s tired… so I drag her kicking and screaming (which, really, is more tiring than just getting up and voting…)

  2. voting

    I voted,too. I am always whistling the Revolution tune. At my precinct I feel that I’m always surrounded by the bitter melons! And the hateful recorded phone messages I’ve been receiving at night has been ruining my sleep. I’ve had a son in combat(so I don’t really sleep much anyway), I’m mad as @$%& and don’t want to take it anymore.
    signed,
    Macawmama+a little drama

  3. I vote to have a voice.

    When I hear people complain about the state of the country, my first question is always, “Did you vote?”

    When they answer “no” (which happens a frightening percentage of the time), I tell them to quit complaining. “If you don’t voice your opinion at the polls, then you don’t have the right to voice it to me when things don’t go the way you think they should!”

  4. I love voting. My husband and I make a date of it – it is one of our special rituals of fall and spring, although the stakes just seem higher in the fall. Every year, or 6 months, we wake up extra early so we can get to our nursing home polling place. Every aspect of voting tickles me – I like seeing what number I am. We usually get there so early that Tim and I are like #43 and 44.

    After making our voices heard, we go out for breakfast. There we indulge in yummy treats and argue over who we voted for. It’s great fun. One of my favorite dates of the year. Then we go to work and carry out our respective days. The rest of the date occurs when we reconvene at night to sit on the couch, munch on popcorn, and watch the election returns until the wee hours of the morn.

    One of our first dates was on Election Night 2000 – we sat together for hours admidst cheers and groans on our college campus in the student lounge with the big screen TV. We were the only couple with a couch and we stayed parked there, not willing to miss a second of the coverage as reporters recanted their initial decisions about Florida. Since that night we’ve shared so much… momentous occaisons… I think each Election Night is an opportunity for us to think about what’s next, of what will be, and of what we really hope. And I’m glad I get to share that with Tim, regardless of our political differences.

  5. I vote because I can. I am fortunate enough to live in a country where voting is my right, so I’m going to use it every time. I vote because I want this country to be a place where my family can grow up in physical and moral safety.

  6. I vote b/c people like my fiance and his friends have and will put their lives on the line to protect my right to do so. And, as a political science major, I understand the importance. It makes me SO ANGRY when people say they don’t vote b/c their vote doesn’t matter!!!

    That, and I really want those Republicans out of control.

  7. I’m kind of sad that I never got to use nifty cool voting machines. The first time I voted it was a paper ballot that was then fed into some computer-gizmo. Ever since then I’ve been voting absentee since I live at school, 3 hours away from home.

    Fun (well, for me) voting story: I turned 18 exactly one week before the elections that year. I made sure I was registered well in advance and proudly told everyone that voting was what I was looking forward to most about being 18. The gubernatorial candidate I voted for even won that year, which made it extra special for me. Hopefully she wins again this year….

    And like others have said, I vote in order to make my voice heard. I regularly write to my elected officials to let them know what I think about the jobs they’re doing in the state or national capital, and my vote is my way of backing up my praises/complaints.

  8. Hi, I want people to know there’s info on my journal about reporting any voting problems. The hotline is 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683). Thanks to all who vote.

    I vote because otherwise I’d have to keep my mouth shut, and that’s just not an option.

  9. In our little Vermont city (of approx. 5,000), we still have paper ballots and you use a black magic marker to fill in the circles, SAT-style.

    I vote because it matters. Passing the school budget here is always a battle: One time it missed passing by TWO votes. Luckily, we’re not voting for one today.

    And then I have the right to complain when it doesn’t turn out as I like!

    Cary

  10. I will vote because I’ve seen what 4 years of Bush can do to a country. I think it’s important to have a say and I know what it’s like to not have a say. When I turn 18 you can bet I’ll vote.

    -Wes

  11. I vote because it’s my right, and my duty — and my privilege

    You said it!! It makes me sad when people go on and on about red states/blue states as if geography were somehow inherent to political beliefs, as if opposing voices in any particular state are of no relevance whatsoever (as in “let ’em secede, we don’t want them!” — one of the most unAmerican sentiments I have ever heard expressed — as if the fact that nearly all major urban centers everywhere, like Austin and Dallas, nearly always go Democratic doesn’t matter, just as rural areas all over the country are likely to go Republican, even in the northeast; as if all those hundreds of thousands of Democrats in red states and Republicans in blue states might as well shut up and sit down because nobody cares what they think) — so thank you for not giving up and accepting the media myth that this country is totally polarized by geography!

    But that said, while I would NEVER defend the choice not to vote, I don’t want to ignore the fact that so many people — particularly people of color in underprivileged places — have simply given up hope because they see (real, not imagined) rampant election fraud and widespread disenfranchisement among everyone they know, often just as bad as it was decades ago. Obviously I still think they should try, should fight, and not just give up and say “my vote doesn’t matter” — but I at least have to acknowledge that it’s awfully easy for me to trumpet that here in liberal Boston, where I really do believe that my voice is heard. It’s not that easy for everybody.

    /rant

  12. i vote to save babies… prolife is THE ONE thing i base my vote on… it sounds stupid, but its the thing that matters most to me. having abortion outlawed may not actually decrease the number of abortions performed in america, but at least i wont be supporting those who would make it more widely available.

  13. “Decisions are made by those who show up.”

    – Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing)

    I care about my country and what effect our leaders have on the world. The people are put these people in power, and the people remain aware of what’s going on, they can change it. That is, if they care enough to do so.

    Also, in the last 100 years alone, people in Poland, Hungary, China, Czechosolvakia (Eastern Europe in general) and countless countries in Africa have died/ been tortured/ been jailed for the right to vote. Too many Americans and citizens of Iraq have died in an attempt to give Iraqis the right to vote.

    I didn’t even have to sneeze to have my right to vote. I’m not going to take advantage of it.

  14. Jealous of all the Voters

    I cannot wait to vote. I’m super excited about turning 18 because that’s the year we’ll officially get rid of Bush!
    Did you know that out of all the countries that have the right to vote, Americans are in the lowest percentage to actually excersise that right.
    It bothers me when my parents don’t go vote. And my boyfriend. Back in September I asked him if he was gonna vote and when he said no, I was like, What!?! He said, “I don’t know enough about the candidates, and that’s how we get people like Bush…ignorant people go out and vote for candidates when they don’t even know what they stand for.” I see where he’s coming from, but he could’ve gone out and found out about the candidates, searched websites and stuff.
    He also said that he’d vote in ’08, and that bothers me also, that people act like Presidental elections are the only ones that really matter. I think a lot of people have poor ideas about how much of an impact our Senators and Representatives and Govenor have on our lives.

    P.S. The Beatles are the shiz.

  15. Stundents under the influence of Bush

    Yeah, I think maybe Bush’s term has woken some of our generation up so now they’ll be like, Well, we don’t want anyone like him again, and actually go out and vote when it’s our turn.

    It sucks not having a say. We’re always talking in AP Government about how little rights high school students have and stuff. It’s very depressing.

  16. Although I’m not a fan of abortion, I’m gonna go w/ the Clintons on this one “Abortion should be safe, legal and rare. Coat-hanger abortions are not cool. What pisses me off about so many pro-life candidates is that quite a few of them are the same ones who are out there saying that social health-care is evil and preaching abstinence only. 1 in 4 pregnant women in the US doesn’t have health insurance. We are supposed to be the best country in the world and about 40 other countries have a lower infant mortality rate than us. The way to reduce the rate of abortion is to provide better education, make health-care more available and eliminate sexism.

  17. I’ll vote when I can, which’ll be in time for the 2008 election, (turn 18 next year), simply because of the if you don’t vote you have no right to complain so shut the heck up phrase I’ve prophessed for the last four years.

    I’ll also vote for my morals, because, morals makes the man, not the other way around.

    P.S. Is that Jared Leto from 30 Seconds To Mars in your icon?

  18. I vote because I feel that if I don’t I have no right to complain for the rest of the term. Whereas if I vote and my candidate doesn’t win, I can, and if my candidate wins and ends up sucking I can, but only after apologizing profusely for being one of the idiots suckered to everyone first.

  19. I vote so that I can complain! Don’t vote, don’t complain! Heh.

    I also feel that since it is a right and a privilege (privileged right?) to have my voice heard, it shall ring out in the form of computerized ballot!

  20. I’m with you, except the other way ’round, and I’m not of voting age yet. (I’m a moderate Republican in San Francisco. Can someone say minority?)
    ~Cuileann

  21. Cause I turned 18 in October so I could!
    Plus, you get a cool sticker. I mean, seriously. What more reason do you need?

    The bigger question is, why not vote? It’s fun and low in calories! You get to decide who is in office (especially with midterms…your vote really does count!) and what choices are made. If you don’t like voting, you should go live in a place that doesn’t have any and see how you like it.

  22. I respect your opinion, but I have a deep concern about the language.

    I have never met a person who was anti-life. Not even morticians.

    The debate is between people who are morally opposed to abortion, a medical procedure which they feel is murderous, and people who support abortion as a medical procedure which they feels prevents a fetus from growing into a viable infant.

    Thus, some people are anti-abortion and others are pro-abortion.

    End of linguistic clarification.

  23. Might “pro-abortion” not also be misleading? I know many people who are personally opposed to abortion — really, truly opposed, on a personal level, and would discourage anyone they knew from having one — but are still in favor of protecting the individual’s legal right to choose. If “pro-choice” isn’t a good linguistic option, perhaps “pro-abortion rights” (and “anti-abortion rights”)?

  24. I will vote

    because I am a woman. In two short years I will be given the right to vote because wonderful women like Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony, just to name a few devoted their lives to giving the women of America a voice. I cannot and will not throw away what they fought for so hard. I will take advantage of my right and vote for the next president in 2008. I can’t wait.

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