Today’s the day!
Have you cast your ballot yet? Did you vote absentee? Or do you live where early voting is allowed?
My first presidental ballot was cast absentee as a twenty-one year old college student. My roommate voted also and we witnessed each others ballots. I think our votes cancelled each other.
The first time in my life when a presidental election fell on Nov 6 I was just becoming aware of politics. I remember asking my father after I came home from school if he’d voted. Yes, he did.
Who did you vote for? The loser, he replied. How do you know? The votes haven’t been counted yet. I could see this mountain of paper ballots that needed counting in my mind and the polls just now closing.
It was years later, during another election cycle when I began to understand about projections, polls, and landslide victory in 1956.
Twenty-eight years later I cast my ballot again. By this time our family – two sons added to the husband – had moved several times and changed economic status but not opinions. This was the fourth state I’d lived in and the third where I’d cast a presidential vote along with state and local officials. (Our stay in one state didn’t include a leap year.) My losing streak remained intact.
Today is twenty-eight years later. I’m in a different state now. The sons are grown and will cast ballots in their own juristictions. The husband is an ex and I suspect he will vote – veterans tend to. My plans for the day put a walk to the polling place as a diversion on my regular morning walk.
My reward? I think I’ll continue that morning walk to a restaurant that serves breakfast. Tonight will find me watching the results. Winner or loser – I’ve exercised my civic muscle.
