For the last three months, you’ve read numerous articles, watched campaign ads, listened to your favorite cable news (mine is MSNBC)debate issues and swiped through social media.
This is the year of the vote.
Today is the day of reckoning.
Voting is important for my mom and my daughter. They realize what’s at stake for women in this country.
Last week I sat with my mother reviewing her mail-in ballot. She’s legally blind so I read every candidate statement and pro/con of all the propositions in a voice that’s twice as loud as I normally use because she’s also hard of hearing.
I repeated myself, often.
But that’s okay, Mom takes care with who and what she votes for every time. She draws the line on the ballot herself although she has to put the paper four inches from her eyes.
The process takes a little over two hours.
The next day, my daughter came to me with her mail-in ballot. This is her first time voting. After reading the candidate statements she declared,
“Some of them say a whole lot of nothing. I don’t want them to tell me what they’re going to do but what have they done.”
The procedure took her one hour. That’s a huge amount of time for a Millennial. “Can’t they streamline this process?” she says.
One hour, two hours, that’s okay for the privilege to vote.
People of color and their allies fought hard for my right to vote.
I’m super-proud of Mom and my daughter for voting. That’s three generations of women voting in this family.
Many people today will stand in two, three hour lines before or after work in states where November weather is cold or rainy.
Many of those people are parents who will juggle work time and child care to go vote. People who use canes, wheelchairs, and have mobility issues will find a way to go vote.
That takes a lot of conviction and dedication.
Thank you for using the power of your vote today.
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