Voting on Election day is one of the most important thing we can do as an American citizen to ensure our voices are heard. Our participation in our democracy shouldn’t end there, though.
For the last several years, I’ve worked at polling places in precincts in my home county. I’ve been active in politics in one way or another my whole life, but I never truly appreciated how awe-inspiring the Right to Vote actually is until I worked my first Election Day.
All of the partisan hatred seems to disappear and there is a renewed sense of Patriotism, if only for the 16 hours that we’re in that room. Sure, there are laws that prohibit partisan campaigning inside the polling place, but there’s something more to it than that.
I was left short-handed during the May 2013 Primary Elections due to the illness of two of my elderly Election Board members. The County Election Board sent a high school student as a replacement. My first reaction was: “Oh great. Just what I need. A lazy high school kid.”
After speaking with him for a little while, I learned that he was participating in order to gather experience for a paper on the American political process for his AP course in Political Science. While sharing some of the experiences I had while working on my own Poli-Sci degree, I quickly realized that younger people like him are exactly who we need working the polls on Election Day.
I think it would a positive step in the right direction for this country if it were a requirement for High School graduation. Direct participation in the democratic process would likely even raise the embarrassingly low turnout in our elections!
When you’re at your local polling place on November 5, 2013, take a minute and see if you don’t notice that feeling I’m talking about and remember to thank the good folks working behind those tables. Chances are, they’ll spend 14 hours or more there that day.
If you want to participate as a poll worker on Election Day, please contact your County Board of Elections for more information. Chances are, they may even need help for the November 5 election.
Have you ever experienced that Patriotic feeling on Election Day, too? Are you planning to vote in this election? Leave me a comment and let me know!
Image Credits: Perkypatriot
