Rockin The Vote on My Day Off

This is my favorite time of the year in Ohio, as the leaves change, jeans and sweat­shirts get unpacked, foot­ball and base­ball are get­ting inter­est­ing,  the nights are cool, and autumn is in its full glory.   Yes­ter­day was a beau­ti­ful, and unsea­son­ably warm day for Octo­ber in Ohio, and I took the day off from work.

I spent the morn­ing tin­ker­ing around the house, work­ing on projects, clean­ing up old messes, and try­ing to get a lit­tle more orga­nized.  It always feels great to have every­thing in place — even if it is only for a day or two.

In the after­noon, we loaded up the kids and headed off to the board of elec­tions to vote.  This year, Ohio is allow­ing early vot­ing, some­thing that I think is won­der­ful.  In a typ­i­cal elec­tion, there is no way that I would be able to stand in line with my kids for hours and vote.  They can only wait so long, and would end up hav­ing a hor­ri­ble expe­ri­ence.  In short, they would not get to see democ­racy in action.  Early vot­ing changes that.

We showed up at the board of elec­tions at 1:30, filled out some papers, and com­pleted the whole process of vot­ing in about 15 min­utes.  There was no line, no has­sle, and no prob­lem.  Best of all, my chil­dren got to expe­ri­ence what it is like to vote.  My daugh­ter has asked count­less ques­tions about the elec­tions, and is very engaged in the idea of democ­racy.  It made me proud to see her be so enchanted with the vot­ing process — which many just take for granted.

I hope that you will choose to vote this year, as I believe that it is some­thing that every Amer­i­can should do — regard­less of ide­ol­ogy.  We are blessed to live in a coun­try where all voices can be heard.  For Ohioans, I highly rec­om­mend tak­ing advan­tage of early vot­ing.  It is too easy not to.