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Top Comments: Eight Years Ago Edition [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-11-04  

Thanks to the magic of social media, I was reminded of this [excerpt of a] post I made on this day in 2016:

Standing in line (loooong line) with Mr. Brillig at City Hall so he can vote early (for why I am not, see below). It is good to see so many people exercising their civic right to vote. Just read that nearly 25% of the registered voters in my city took advantage of the opportunity to vote early (first time Massachusetts has allowed it). Bodes well for a good turnout overall! I decided to wait until Tuesday so I can bring K2*. This morning he was asking if voting was "safe" because kids at school have been talking about things they've heard... threats to voters and to candidates (well, candidate). So I am going to take him to show that even in such a toxic environment, I get to go and cast my ballot. *K2 was eleven years old back then

I’ll be honest, a lot about that post surprised me, including the mere fact I have no memory of it at all. I would have sworn Mr. Brillig had never voted early, because he is such a fan of the ‘day of’ experience. I had completely forgotten that Early Voting (as opposed to an Absentee Ballot, which required a ‘reason’ for requesting one) has only been around in MA for eight years.

But most of all, I had forgotten the conversation K2 had with us about voting and safety. He had started middle school… 6th grade… only a few months prior, and it makes perfect sense now that he and his friends/classmates would be discussing the election and what they’d heard at home. I’ve memory-holed the threats of violence from that year, primarily because 2020 was so… well. Yeah. It was BAD, and then Jan 6 2021 happened and our scale of WTAF Just Happened went logarithmic.

I most certainly DO remember bringing him to vote. Back then it wasn’t in a centralized location so we would have trekked over to the nearby Senior Living Complex where my precinct voted. He watched me fill out my ballot and knew who I chose. I’m not sure but he probably refused the I Voted sticker. I also vividly remember his response when he awoke the next morning and asked who won. Even at eleven, my Black son realized what just happened. His big sister was voting in her first Election, Absentee because she was in her first year of college, and spent much of Election night texting me as the terrible results came in.

Fast forward to today. I voted early, because I am a precinct Warden tomorrow and didn’t want to have to rush over to vote (fun fact, for the first time I’m a Warden in my own voting precinct so that would have been… weird?). Mr. Brillig will in fact be voting in person tomorrow, and I’ll get to watch him insert his ballot into the tabulator. K1 and her partner will be voting in their nearby town… they’re day-of people too!! And K2 chose to exercise his right to vote where he resides as a college student, so he cast an early ballot in NY-16. His college made tomorrow a holiday, so students who need to vote locally can go via a special election shuttle bus (or walk en masse) to the polling place, and students were encouraged to help with Election Day volunteering.

LFG, we can DO this!!!!!

And now, on to tonight’s Tops!

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