My First Vote

(The story of My First Vote is factual; however, I have chosen to obscure some details in the interest of privacy.)

I developed my lifelong passion for voting at an early age. My father, a World War II veteran, always equated voting with freedom. The ‘good countries,’ he explained. were the ones that let people vote. Tyrants, racists, and dictators suppressed the vote. The equation was simple. To this day, I do not know for whom he voted. But my father made it clear that voting was the most fundamental of all our rights.

The Story Of My First Vote

After graduating from college, I joined the Peace Corps. Early in my tour, it came time for the first Presidential election in which I’d be eligible to vote. I assumed I would cast an absentee ballot. Instead, my first vote ended up being an unforgettable event in my life! It affects my feelings about voting to this day.

About six weeks before the election, I received a letter from the American Embassy. It invited all Americans in the country to an election party! The party would take place a couple of weeks before the actual election back home. The Embassy arranged for us to vote and then send the ballots back to the USA via diplomatic pouch.

I had to request a day off from my job and get up before dawn to take a minibus all the way across the country to get to the Embassy. I’d never been there. I entered  large ballroom festooned with red, white, and blue bunting. The walls featured signs indicating each of the states represented by people who’d be voting that day. The big attraction for the Peace Corps Volunteers was a wonderful buffet with ‘typical American food.’ While it may not seem all that exotic, we went crazy at our first opportunity to have hot dogs, apple pie, French fries, potato chips, and hamburgers since we’d left the States! It seemed more appealing than a fabulous Thanksgiving feast!

I drifted over to the Illinois area. There were business people from companies like John Deere and McCormick Reaper. I talked with the missionaries from Moody Bible Institute, Government employees, and some American retirees living there. I was, by far, the youngest person in the Illinois “delegation.”

Before voting started, the ambassador came in. I’d seen him once before when he welcomed our incoming Peace Corps cohort. But that’d all been very brief and pro forma. This presentation stayed with me forever. He said:

“We are so honored to welcome you to the American Embassy. The most fundamental right of all Americans was the reason the Colonies declared independence because our forefathers demanded the right to vote. Without the right to vote, none of our other liberties exist. Each day, my staff here at the Embassy processes requests from people who want to emigrate to the USA. This same thing happens every day in every American Embassy worldwide. One of the main reasons they give is they want to have the right to live in a country where their opinion matters. In other words, they want to have the right to vote in a free and fair election. By voting today, you are fulfilling the dreams of men and women who believed that “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”. You honor America today.

Before we begin voting, I would like to recognize five young people here who have an opportunity I hope they will never forget. They are volunteers with the Peace Corps, and this will be the very first time they’ll be old enough to vote! I want you all, the people my age, to recognize the young people who volunteered to serve their country and serve humanity even before they could vote for the government they represent. To honor them, we will call them up by name and allow them to cast the first votes.”

Alphabetically, I was the first person called. I have tears in my eyes remembering the thunderous applause in that ballroom as I walked over to the voting booth in the designated Illinois area and cast my first vote. My fellow Peace Corps volunteers all said that it was a moment they would always remember.

After casting my first vote, I scarfed down one more hotdog and sneaked some potato chips into my backpack. Then I  headed to a minibus. I wanted to stay longer, but it was time to go to my post across the country, where I was teaching community volunteers how to teach other people to read.

Whether you’ve voted in person or absentee vote, whichever party or candidate you support, take a moment and realize how many people died to make that moment possible.

American Wars And The Right To Vote

What was the rallying cry of the American Revolution? “No taxation without representation.” That generation risked their lives for the right to vote. Representation (in other words, voting) was a concept for which the Founders were willing to give their lives.

After the Civil War, one of the most critical debates was when the government would return the right to vote to the traitors in the South. Meanwhile, Congress rapidly passed three constitutional amendments. The first abolished slavery forever. Then, Congress quickly gave some formerly enslaved people the right to vote. After freedom, it was considered the most crucial right you could help.

In World War I, President Wilson declared our purpose for entering the European conflict as a fight to “make the world safe for democracy.” We saw ourselves aligned with countries that offered people the right to vote.

In World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt offered the same sentiment. True, Russia was not a democracy, but as soon as the Second world war ended, the United States built alliances with other countries that allowed the right to vote.

The process has not always been neat or easy. Women were wrongfully denied the right to vote until a 100-year-long protest movement led to the necessary changes. White supremacists in the South desperately held on to their power through many means, but none more potent than denying African-Americans the right to vote. That right was won by the blood of Medgar Evers, Dr. King, Cheney Schwarner and Goodman, and so many others.

A Vietnam veteran told me he felt one of his most sacred freedoms was the right not to vote. I got his point, but it made me sad.

But as political analyst Edward R Murrow said:

“We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities.”

Please vote.