Future Voter Goes to the Polls

by Pa Rock
Proud Grandpa

* * * * *.  Election Dispatch #3  * * * * *

(The following is from my son, Tim, in Kansas, who shared his voting experience today with his four-year-old son, Sullivan,  a.k.a. "Sully".   Roeland Park is a Kansas suburb of Kansas City.)

I decided to take Sully with me to vote this year. Olive went with us on the last big election and I thought he might remember going with me one day. Being four, he doesn't usually wear a mask because he tends to pull it off, but I explained to him that this was an important event and we both had to wear them. Unfortunately, all I could find was his sister's pink mask so everyone kept calling him "her" but I warned him beforehand that this would probably happen and he didn't seem to care all that much. We were there to vote, not for a fashion show.

The drive up to the polling place was full of signs but quickly they stopped appearing as we got closer and we parked right down in front of the Roeland Park Community Center. There weren't many in-person voters to be seen. We saw a total of four other voters today.

We were greeted outside by a nice woman who was happy I'd brought my child with me to get him "into the habit" and we dashed right up to the front where a friendly man explained the procedure and gave me a stylus/pen that was wrapped in plastic. I assumed we'd have to give it back and that they sterilized them to reuse but it turns out everyone gets to keep it as a Covid voting souvenir. They must've made millions of those things.

Inside, they scanned my license, then Sully and I went to our machine and talked quietly about who we would vote for. I'd given him a long talk on the ride up there about voting for fair and honest people and he exclaimed that he was for Biden! After choosing our preferred candidates, we took the printed ballot and inserted it into a counting machine. I got a sticker saying "I Voted" and the woman working the exit door gave Sully a "future voter" sticker. My four-year-old son walked out looking like a proud young man who'd done his civic duty.

The whole thing took about 5 minutes. Erin, my wife, voted early this morning and had the same in-and-out experience. It seems most Roeland Parkers are voting by mail this year. Neither of us saw any poll-watchers or Proud Boys or any tactics to intimidate or confuse the in-person voters.

When Sully turns eighteen, on June 20th of 2034, he will be eligible to cast his own ballot that fall, and his own presidential ballot two years later in 2036. Let's just hope the name Trump, in any form, is nowhere to be seen when Sully gets to vote on his own.

(Voting is a very big deal, Sully.   Cherish your vote and use it at every opportunity that presents itself.  Much love, Pa Rock)