This past weekend I went and voted early in my hometown. I thought I would share my experience in voting in my first Presidential election. My grandparents picked me up from the bus stop and took me ot the polling place to vote. It's a crazy story and involves us (my Bapa & I) almost getting arrested... So prepare yourselves :)
We arrived to the polling place and my Bapa & I parked and went inside. Before we went inside, he saw that there was an American flag outside the door. He insisted that we take a picture in front of it before we go inside.
As my Bapa was taking the picture seen above, a family of 3 came out of the building. With them was a boy who looked to be about my age, and was also voting for his first time too. His parents saw this marvelous picture opportunity and insisted that he do the same pose after I was through. He didn't seem to excited for this though. I smiled apologetically and said, "You're welcome?"
We then proceeded to go into the building and fill out the necessary forms. Upon filling out the forms and I stood in line to check in and prove to them that I was indeed who I claimed to be. The women that was helping me fill out all the forms and such asked me if this was my first time voting. A smile broke across my face and I replied, 'Yes!' She then proceeded to announce this to the whole ENTIRE room of voters by saying, 'Hey everyone! We have a first time voter!!!!!' Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and clapped for me. While I did blush and turn beet red from all the sudden attention I was receiving, it was kind of cool that they were all excited for me to vote for the first time.
It soon became my turn to go into the little voting booth. I was surprised to find out that the ballots were electronic, so you were voting on a computer type thing. I always remember when I was younger and I went with my parents to vote I always thought it was a paper ballot. But hey, it's the 21st century folks, so I guess we can use fancy technology to vote! Ha!
The next set of pictures seen below document the morning adventure so far. My Bapa LOVES to take pictures and wanted to capture this moment in history. I may not have been super excited to take a ton of pictures during the whole process of voting, but I'm thankful that he did because now I can show these to my future kids and grandkids saying, 'Look, here's the first time I ever voted!'
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| Waiting in line to get all the registration done. |
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| Starting to vote! |
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| This is my 'okay, too many pictures' face... Lol :) |
Okay, now comes the exciting part of the morning. As I was standing in my little voting booth (would you consider it a booth? Maybe just a station...) my Bapa was standing on the other side of the room, taking pictures of course. He wanted to take an ariel shot of the whole room. As he was doing so, one of the officials came up to him and said, 'Excuse me sir, you cannot take pictures in here, it's against the federal law. I'm going to have to ask you to delate that photo.' During this conversation, I was still concentrating on voting, but the thought crossed through my mind, 'Are we going to go to jail? I haven't even said goodbye to my parents yet...' Am I being a little dramatic? Yeah, probably. But it was an adventure none the less.
I am thankful that I am able to vote and took advantage of this amazing opportunity. I also am glad that I got to experience it with my grandparents. It's empowering to know that I am voting for our future as citizens of the United States of America.
{Peace&Love} Jenny
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