Some election days my candidates and issues haven’t prevailed and some they have, but I always love election day.
It is our secular democratic holiday.
I see all sorts of people at the polling place. These are my neighbors.
I get a thrill seeing people walk in, although I have to say I liked it better when I voted right in my neighborhood, epecially at a school. The kids got to see the voting booths and I could walk right over. Now I vote in the Bangor Civic Center and it doesn’t quite feel the same way.
When there are candidates and public officials there, I shake their hands. I wish all the candidates “Good Luck.” With all their work to try to make the world better, according to their values, they should be commended.
I love getting my “I Voted” sticker. Today they didn’t have them in Bangor and I was told that the Maine Secretary of State cut the funding. Luckily they still had them at UMaine when I stopped by its polling place and asked for one.
I grew up in a time when the fight for the right to vote felt very real. I learned about Freedom Summer and the people who died to get African-Americans the right to vote. That struggle meshed with the values I learned in my synagogue, that we must pursue justice for all.
I’m sure all ths prompted me to become a political scientist. On my application to PhD programs, I wrote that I wanted to study political participation and democratic theory — basically how active citizens contribute to democracy.
Yes, I love election day.