(Non-Schoolhouse) Rock the Vote

Are you in a state that has important (or any) elections today?  Did you go vote??

I'm a total sap about voting.  Did you know you can be a sap about voting?  I actually teared up as I walked into my polling station today.  It was one of the few times in my life where I wasn't voting in the town I grew up in, so that was strange.  Ordinarily I go vote in the high school I attended (literally rocking my vote via my old "schoolhouse"), but since the hubby and I now live one town over, I had to vote somewhere else.

I live in NJ and we have a big, highly contested race for governor here.  The two main party candidates are running neck-and-neck and the third party candidate is pulling in 10%.  I'm not one to pontificate publicly about who I think deserves to win (and anyone who knows me in real life knows my political leanings).  Mainly I think it's simply important to vote - to exercise the right and privilege you have as a citizen.  My siblings and I are first generation Americans; our grandparents sacrificed everything they knew and had to bring our parents here.  Every time I enter a polling station, I feel like my grandparents are walking alongside me.

People feel like their votes don't count, but they do (especially in today's NJ governor's race).  And, sure, you may not like any of the candidates, but there's got to be a way to figure out who you like a smidge more or who's more in line with your beliefs about how your town/county/state/country should move forward.

So I hope you got out there and voted today.

Tomorrow, less warm, fuzzy feelings as I snark about Kate Hudson.  Stay tuned.

Comments

[Jennifer M.]

I'm jealous - we don't have polling stations in Oregon anymore. We just have to mail in our ballots by the deadline, which totally makes it feel anticlimactic. There's no patriotism or importance placed on it anymore here. It's just like, fill it out and toss it in a mailbox. I remember my mom going down to the local school and voting when I was a kid. I wish we still did it like that today. As it stands now, half the time I forget to vote or even when it's "due". I think there's something to be said for a universal event that everyone in your town participates in on a given day.