Jade writes in about her family’s split-ticket voting and accompanying stub-posting tradition:
Growing up in my house, my parents were always cancelling each others’ votes out. My mom’s a moderate Democrat, my dad’s hard-core Republican. However, they both always encouraged each other to vote no matter what. It was an election-day ritual for my house that both my parents’ voting stubs went up on the fridge door as soon as they got home, to prove that they’d done their civic duty. One of the first things I did when I went to college was register to vote, and even though none of my roommates shared the tradition or understood why I did it, the day I first voted (presidential election in 2004), I got back to the apartment with my voting stub and proudly tacked it on the fridge, knowing that I shared that solidarity with my parents, even so many miles from home. I’m even farther from home this year, and not voting in-person because I’ve kept my registry in my home state, but I’m going to ask my mom to stick whatever leftover remnant you get from an absentee ballot on the fridge along with hers and my brother’s stubs come November, and I know my boyfriend will be putting his stub on our fridge here. The tradition lives on.
She also mentions the elementary school tradition of the mock vote:
The other voting story I have is from 1992, when I was seven. My class did a “mock vote” around the presidential election that year, complete with a mini-debate and encouragement to talk to our parents about how they were voting and why. I decided that I would vote for Clinton. However, our class didn’t do blind voting. It was “Put your hand up if you vote for…” And the vast majority of the class voted for Bush Sr. So, fearing ridicule if I stuck to my decision, so did I. When my mother asked me after school how it went, I told her, and she expressed her deep disappointment in me, that I hadn’t stood by my decision. That feeling of shame stays with me to this day – I’ve never thanked her, but I probably owe a lot of my stubbornness in political debates to that remembered feeling of having Done Wrong by not standing up for my principles.
In 1988, when I was about the same age, our school did a blind mock vote for the Bush-Dukakis election. Not knowing anything about the presidential candidates or their beliefs, I opted for Dukakis because I liked the sound of his name. My elementary school, like most of the nation, voted for Bush. I was crushed. Looking back, there were many relevant names and faces in that election as there have been in recent years, from Biden to Gore to Jackson to Dole. This was the election that launched Ann Richards and sunk good ol’ boy Hooser Dan Quayle. Take a look.
In blogospheric news, Jack & Jill Politics has launched a wiki project that aims to publicize efforts to suppress voter rights. Liminal States has a comprehensive review on why working against voter suppression efforts is such an important action point for this election season. Take a look at the Voter Suppression Wiki and it’s first call to action, a Republican attempt to shut down a 3,000 person registration drive in an Alabama prison.
Send your stories to fauxrealtho at gmail dot com with “VOTE” in the title, including your name and a link to your website, and we will publish your stories as they come in along with additional information about voting registration, disenfranchisement, and election news. Send us what you’ve got.
Meanwhile, you still have at least through September and early October to get registered to vote in the 2008 presidential election. Some states allow voters to register through the end of October. You can find out your state’s deadline here.