I voted this morning, first thing I did when I left the house. I can't remember an election where I was less enthusiastic about anything on the ballot. I can't say there were any candidates who really captured my imagination.When we voted there was a neighbor there with her small son. He really wanted to vote. More parents should take their children with them to vote. That made me think it would be a great idea to set up a dummy voting machine and let children vote. I'm sure there must be spares.
Finally I remembered the "Election Night" episode of The West Wing when Charlie took a couple of his neighborhood friends to vote . One guy liked it so much he wanted to go again, like an amusement park ride.
Also in that episode people who voted were given "I voted" sticker for their clothes. I've never seen that done here. I wonder why? It would at least stop me from being accosted in the Rouse's parking lot by 6 different campaign workers (3 from Georges). It might actually cause some people to go vote.
6 comments:
I've always taken my kids with me to vote (and of course, kids love pushing the buttons). I'm happy to say that for weeks now, Rachel has been asking me questions about the candidates and who I'm voting for and why. I think her generation will be a lot more involved and politically savvy than many in my generation have been.
They give out the "I Voted" stickers in Leesville, LA, where I always voted with my mother growing up, and where they still used the old metal pull-bar machines until just a couple of elections ago... sometimes voting for her (Ross Perot for prez). They gave out the stickers in Omaha too, and it always made me proud to wear mine. It helps to remind people it is in fact election day, and that's why I'm wearing my "vote dammit" tt-shirt from Ani Difranco's Vote Dammit tour in 2004...
I'm with you on this sentiment. New Orleans has gotten excited about many elections, only to be disappointed.
I'm a pessimist until I see results.
This time I just had no strong commitment to any particular candidate. The most important race, New Orleans City Council at Large, had a singularly uninspiring field of pretenders.
I hope the Secretary of State or someone will start giving out stickers.
Ooooh, stickers!
My son came into the voting booth with me, too, with the folks at the polls warning me not to let him touch the buttons. I'm sure he would have loved a sticker - he even gave the lady signing me in one of his Thomas the Tank Engine stickers he got from SteamFest.
'Course, I don't know how popular "I voted, dammit!" would be with the uptight family folks...
8-)
The high school I attended (not in LA) was allowed to use real voting booths for student council elections and so forth. It was some kind of state voter education program. It really was a great way to up and coming voters used to voting, using the booth etc.
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