Let's Go Vote!

On how voting affects both me and my kids...

I wrote a lot of postcards to encourage voting. So many postcards.

My earliest memory of civic engagement was entering the voting booth with my mom. My town had the old-fashioned voting machines, long before digital things permeated every part of our lives. You went in, closed the curtain, and clicked off your selected candidates. Then, the most exciting part happened, at least according to my young mind. You pulled the giant lever, which both registered your vote and flung open the curtain. Of course, my mom let me do that part.

What strikes me the most now is that I don’t remember voting as boring or something my parents did out of civic duty. I remember it as exciting and fun. Goodness knows there are few adults who think of it that way.

Besides showing my tendency towards being intensely wonky at a young age, I think these experiences set the foundation for my involvement and interest in local and national policy. Unlike some people who are into politics, I’m not all that interested in the individual candidates or parties. I care about them because of the impact they have, but the back-and-forth games frustrate me more than anything else. Rather, I’m deeply invested in the issues, whether they’re as local as our Bikeway Master Plan or as national as stopping oil pipelines. Seeing involvement in politics as something genuinely enjoyable rather than a burden started me down this path. Now, it’s something I need to remember when I struggle with setbacks and disappointment. I could certainly stand to gain back some of my youthful innocence around the subject.

For all our sakes, I have long brought my kids to the polls. Every year there’s an election - not just national elections - my husband and I involve them as much as possible. I voted by mail this year, but let them know that I was doing so and had dropped off my ballot. Both my husband and kids have the day off on Election Day, so they’ll all be going together.

I think this engagement is part of the reason that both of my kids are interested in and knowledgable about politics. This year, they’re familiar with the candidates and issues involved. Even beyond voting, we talk about the issues and present them in a way that’s as comprehensive as possible while still being age-appropriate. My older son even considers himself a member of our city’s bike advisory committee! He has the right to - he’s attended more meetings than many of the adults. We had the honor of riding on bike infrastructure the other day that he personally advocated for.

Voting is a small part of the democratic process. But it is an essential one. By having our kids participate in the process as early as possible, I hope it becomes not just a lifelong habit, but a role they embrace as citizens of our community, our country, and our world. 

(This is a revised version of an essay I first wrote in 2015! Back then, I was concerned with my kids randomly poking the touchscreen. Now they have all of these awesome insights - albeit interspursed with very passionate opinions on Nintendo video games.)

How have you involved your kids in the democratic process?

If you’re in the U.S. and haven’t voted early, be sure to get out there on Tuesday! Find out where your polling location is at Vote.gov.