Civic Duty

Yesterday we took the kids with us when we went to vote. Dr. J took #1 with him and I took #2. Next time I may rethink that. It turns out #2 is a tad bit claustrophobic. As soon as the curtain closed around us she started freaking out, pulling at the curtains, kicking at the ballot, and peaking in on the guy voting next to us. I'm sure he thought I was spying on him. Regardless I still managed to get my ballot filled out with only one tiny flub. I at least voted for the candidate I wanted so that was nice. In the end even the kids were excited because they got I voted stickers. #2 left hers on all day. I'm sure the volunteers were relieved to see us go though. Between the two of us we picked up five stickers. One for me, one each for the kids, and then Dr. J took two. He wanted one for his coat and one for his shirt so that no matter how he was dressed everyone would know he had voted :) At least that's what he told me. Maybe he just wanted to put out a visible memory jogger for those people who had forgotten it was Super Tuesday. Really though I enjoyed taking the kids. I felt like it was an important moment and I wanted them to share in it and know it was important to me. I have to admit though part of that may be because I now live in a state that at least for primaries splits delegates. Personally I think this is awesome. For those of you who don't know I grew up in Arizona. When I turned eighteen and registered for the democratic party my grandfather told me I was just throwing my vote away. I think his intention was that I would see the light and switch back to the "Right Party". Instead I threw my vote away that year and voted for Al Gore. Yes I've seen an Inconvenient Truth and yes I don't know if I really wanted him to be president but I have to admit at the time it seemed like the lesser of two bloated egos and even though my vote meant nothing because I lived in Arizona and the delegates were most definitely going to go republican I wanted someone out there to know I personally didn't have to vote the same way my grandfather did. I've now been through two presidential elections and both times my vote was thrown away but this year in the primary at least I got to vote and split some delegates. It wasn't much but it finally made me feel like I mattered in the process. It makes me wonder if they split delegates in the actual presidential election if more people would bother to show up to vote? I can't help but think it might scrounge up some extra democrats in Arizona or some republicans in Illinois who otherwise just sit at home because they know which way their state is going to go.