Tuesday, November 04, 2008

First Vote!

This morning was exciting in our household....why? Because it is Election Day. Its not normally exciting, but today - it had a special feeling in the air. You ask again - why? ( I heard you out there....) well, today was Ricky's first time voting - EVER!!! He is 46 years old & has never voted before - he only got registered a few months ago when he had to get his license renewed. He never really cared before & he didnt consider it an important thing. My nagging about it didnt change his mind (shocker!) but I think it hit him when his daughters who are all grown up & registered to vote this election started talking to him about the importance of voting. They are the ones who made the difference.....funny how things change - the kids teach the parent!

For me - my parents instilled the importance of voting. I can remember being in the middle of an awesome street-gathered game of Kickball & my mom & dad would drive down & tell me, "Get in the car, we're voting"...I obviously was too young to vote myself, but my parents took me each time there was a vote to go with them. I saw how important it was to them & how serious they took it. I can remember sitting outside the booth (that was when they had the levels with the curtain drawn.....) & wondering what was going on in there.....I was so excited when I got registered at 18....I could finally vote myself!

So anyways, we get to the polls....I asked Ricky if I could take his picture for his first voting. I got a not so pleasant look & I said, I'm taking it anyways so the picture is of him walking into the school & he's getting his license out. Great shot - I know....but that's the best I could get. I kept threatening him that I was going to take a picture of him voting at the booth. He would have died of a heart attack!!!
But it was SOOOOOO crowded & busy. I normally get in & out at 6:30 in the morning in about 5 minutes. The lines were so long that it took us about 45 minutes! The whole time, I keep pumping Ricky up asking him how he was feeling - if he realized how important this is - all he kept saying: "I'm going to be late for work".....aahhh, the patriotic feeling oozing off of him.

So Ricky filled out his ballot & waited for me so I could show him what to do next...we took our ballot to the little paper eating machine (that's what I call it, the way it sucks it in) & his vote counted!

We were walking out & I asked him, "So, how does it feel - you just voted in the biggest election ever" - his response......"I probably just jinxed the poor guy by voting for him".....aaahh, there's my positive husband that I love!

Get out & vote everyone!!! Happy Election Day!

9 comments:

  1. YIPPEEE Ricky!!! Mickey is off voting now and I am going in an hour...!!!! Praying hard for this day!

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  2. This is the first election Jeff has voted in as well. We went this morning.

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  3. That is exciting!! What an awesome privilege and responsibility we have to vote!

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  4. I voted last week during early voting. No lines, that's the best way to do it. Yay Dad! I'm so proud! Our ballots were completely electronic. Just a computer screen where we check the boxes and push cast ballot. You guys had the old fashioned ones it sounds like. Probably good thing though, you old timers might have had a tough time figuring it out ;)

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  5. Such a cute story! I have always voted too, but for some reason I get so nervous before casting my vote. I honestly think that I never do as much research on the candidates as I should...but, I did vote and it is important to me too :0)

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  6. I'm like you -- I was so excited to get registered when I turned 18.

    How exciting for Ricky to vote in his first election! He'll always remember it. We're proud of you, Ricky!

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  7. We had really long lines here in Illinois too (Big Suprise)

    But good for him. My daughter Emerson was really upset that she couldn't vote this election.

    I just realized tonight that I don't have you on my blogroll, so I haven't kept updated. I put you on now.

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  8. That was really good time. I voted early and was still in line for 2 hours. Some of my friends waited as much as 4.5 hours for early voting! Yikes!

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