Vote here/ Vote aquí

Let's talk politics (we've already talked sex and religion).

If you're an American living in one of the Super-Duper Tuesday states and registered as a donkey or elephant, please vote in the primary!

The boys and I went to vote this morning before school. At 7:45 I was the 46th person to vote for my party in my district (precinct? whatever the small partial neighborhood areas in NYC are called). My older one always helps me vote by pulling the lever at the beginning, helping me find the people so I can flick the little mini-levers for the people I'm voting for, and then pulling the lever to register the vote.

How do you guys get your kids involved in the political process? How do you vote where you live?

Here in the US, each state has different physical methods of voting. New York State still has the really old-school machines with the levers*. Other states have different methods, from electronic machines to paper ballots.

I'd explain our primary process, but I'm not exactly sure I understand it myself. (I thought I did, but was then trying to explain it to an Australian client last week and realized I had no idea how the primaries actually choose the candidates for each party. I don't know how the delegates actually fit in. I fear I was supposed to learn this in a year in which I was more concerned with my stretch acid-wash denim miniskirt and silver flats.) If there's someone who can give a concise explanation of the relationship between delegates, primaries, and states, I'd appreciate it.

Let's talk about how we get our kids interested in the process and how we stay interested ourselves. Feel free to ask questions about other countries' political processes, and we'll try not to be offended and will answer to the best of our abilities.

* My friend's husband used to get paid by a certain political party in a certain northeastern city to jimmy open the back of the machines and change the vote count with a screwdriver when he was 11. Ah, the wheels of democracy.

Comments

[Katydid6]

This came up in our house a couple of weeks ago when our 5 y/o got a "Presidents and the First Ladies" fandex from Chick-fil-a in her kid's meal. We got to Bill & Hillary, so that lead into a conversation about her running for president. Trying to explain the democratic process, parties, etc. to a kindergartner got really confusing and convoluted very quickly. I'd love to hear how others have explained it to their kids.

In past years, I've taken my daughter with my when I vote and let her push the button after I'd made my choices. This will be my first year voting in Indiana, so I have no idea what it will be like. Our primary isn't until May, so at that point it might not even matter.

[Heather]

This year the primary was a defensive vote for me instead of an offensive vote. I cannot get more excited than 'eh' for most of the candidates {philosophical twins in different suits doesn't move me} but I can get pretty 'Heck No!' about some of them so where could I put a vote that most injured my 'Heck No!' candidates?

I'm not so worried about getting my unborn child excited about politics and citizenship as I am about getting my HUSBAND to get in there and push a touch-screen button {oh my I wish I had any faith in those machine with the OMG REUSABLE BALLOT CARDS!!!!!!!!!}.

It's Fat Tuesday and Super Tuesday all in one - it is quite a Tuesday!

[Cloud]

Pumpkin is too little to involve in the voting yet, but I look forward to reading everyone's ideas.

One thing, though: out here in CA, independents can vote in the democratic primary (but not the republican). The poll workers at the place I voted this morning didn't know this, and were resisting an independent who wanted a democratic ballot. She persevered and got to vote, but it was a scary thing to witness- surely the poll workers should know the rules?

The way delegates are awarded is different by state and by party. So it requires an extreme interest in politics to really understand how things work. For instance, in CA the republicans award delegates on a winner take all system, but the democrats award in some complicated proportional manner. The simplistic explanation I always give non-Americans is that we vote for delegates who promise to vote for our candidate at the convention. This is probably how my parents explained it to me many years ago, and unless I get a lot smarter in the next couple of years, is probably how I'll explain it to Pumpkin when she is old enough to care.

[Mrs. CPA]

You vote in your primary for whatever candidate you choose. This decides which way your state's delegates vote at the national convention later in the year. At the national conventions, the parties will choose their representative to the national election in November. The candidates pick their running mates and then start campaigning against the opposite party nominee instead of each other.

[Julie]

I love voting. I love going to my polling place and seeing everyone there doing their civic duty. It kinda makes me tear up sometimes to see in person how very special our country is......all of the bullshit notwithstanding. This morning, I ran into a former student who was voting for the very first time.....and to see the light of excitement in her eyes was extremely special to me. It was really really cool. And made me cry for a little bit in my car behind my sunglasses while waiting for the red light to change.

How do you get kids excited? I was lucky....had a whole classroom full of them at my mercy during the 2000 election, and will have another full class in front of me this November (I'm already planning.....) But Alex always comes with us when we vote. We always vote as a family. We always make sure we vote in person, not absentee. In CA some places are electronic, but we still have mostly the paper ballots where you push down with a pen and it makes a black mark. Like an old scantron test from high school....which I feel relatively comfortable with. No hanging chads, no computer glitches, no old lady with bad bifocals trying to read whether I've marked 12 or 13. Kind of a happy middle I think.

This is such an exciting time. We have over 700,000 new voters just in CA. And I don't think the writers of West Wing could have scripted a more exciting cast than what we have.

I sadly also don't get the delegate stuff...how many, how it works......and like Moxie, I was much more concerned with whether I would run into Robbie between 4th and 5th periods to pay any attention to what was happening in my government class.

[mary]

Checking in from Nebraska. Like katydid6, our primary isn't until May, when it no longer matters. Still, we'll probably go vote. We have the little scan-tron fill-in-the-bubble ballots here. When I lived in PA, we had the punch-card sort. I think we had the same when I lived in California.

My husband's grandma has always worked the polls (until her health started failing). She's an immigrant and is more patriotic than most native-borns I know. Like Julie said, we do have a pretty special country -- people voting, immigrants working at the polling place, everyone doing their part.

[flea]

We don't vote in NC until May 6, but we have paper ballots that we draw a black line on, and which are then scanned into the all-knowing machine.

My polling station is run by my next-door neighbor and landlady, and I usually recognize most of the staffers and a couple of the voters. It's nice to feel so neighborly when we vote. We do or don't bring the kids, depending on our schedule, but it's a very baby-friendly polling station!

Casper's elementary school has KidsVote, and did a big thing at our local elections in November, but she really doesn't get it at all, yet, at 4.

[enu]

I always took the kids in the booth - they thought voting was very exciting, but I had to be careful they didn't pull the big lever till I was all done casting my vote! Also, the poll workers were always so sweet to the kids, made them feel voting was very special, gave them stickers, etc.

This year older daughter is 18, and I am hoping very much she pops into town to vote, but haven't been able to confirm that - she's already voted in a special town election and at town meeting.

Little One (almost 17) and I have had many discussion about the process and the candidates.

So I see the whole thing as a long educational journey!

[Julie]

I think another thing to get kids into it is if you are into it. Some elections have more pizzazz than others, and even I am guilty of forgetting to vote. Talking a lot with your kids about the importance of voting, how our country was founded on our right to vote, how people want to live here so they can have a voice....all of that is lovely. But surrounding your child with adults who also think it is important is.....important. It's not enough that mommy and daddy vote, but does the babysitter vote? Do your child's teachers vote? I love the stickers that say "I voted" because that sends a message to kids...."voting is important to me, and I took the time before work, at lunch, after work to vote". When I started teaching, that's when I started GOING to vote (as opposed to absentee). So I could wear the sticker at school so my students would know voting was important enough for me to do before school. It's not just what's happening in your own home, but in the places where your child spends his or her days.

Get your older kids involved in writing to your local politicians, congressperson, senator if there is something they would like to see changed. You can send an email and they will get back to you. Talk about voting with other adults in front of your children. There is some kind of taboo in our culture that labels talking about politics as impolite or intrusive, or inflamatory. It doesn't have to be. It's our responsibility to talk about issues, to be open about what we believe, and we can do so in a non-inflamatory way. We can all think of that stereotype "dad" (or in my case grand-dad) sitting at the dinner table drinking his gin and tonic and bellowing "So-and-So is a commie!!!" and it doesn't have to be that way.

You don't have to ask people WHO they voted for. You don't have to tell people who YOU voted for. Talk about the issues. Talk about what is important to you, and make sure your kids see you engaging in this dialogue regularly. It is a privelege and an honor to be able to vote. You have 18 years to subtly lay the groundwork so your kids can carry on.

[Julie]

Privilege. Sorry. I can't let that slide.

[Shandra]

This is my excuse to tell a cute toddler story. Skip here if you don't want to hear.

In the fall we had an election here (Ontario) and my husband and I made a big fuss about voting, how we were going to vote, etc. We each took a turn going in to vote while the other person supervised my toddler in the hall.

Then we were going to leave when my toddler said "MY vote!" I said to him "oh you can't vote until you're eighteen. How old are you?" (which he knew, 2).

He answered quick as a button: "18!"

We laughed so hard. Anyways we then went for a treat. I think associating treats with voting is the way to go. :)

[Andromeda]

I'm registered, but not as a donkey or an elephant ;). I'm in one of those states where I get to vote anyway, though (Massachusetts -- in either primary).

In my area it's paper ballots -- there's a broken arrow pointing to each candidate's name; you connect the broken arrow bits by the candidate(s) you're voting for; and then it goes through an optical scan machine. I like this system.

Guess the baby will get interested the same way I did -- by getting dragged into voting booths by her parents every election. As my husband and I vote separately, this means she gets two "I Voted" stickers! Lucky her.

[midlife mommy]

I miss those old lever machines. I really felt like I was voting when I used them. We just draw arrows now. But oh my gosh -- I never realized that they were so easily tampered with. Naive me.

[jlg]

I'm with Julie -- I love voting, too. I am very fortunate to live in a college town in NH, where there are so many opportunities to meet candidates at house parties, town hall meetings, and other venues in the months leading up to the primary. At 3.5 years old and 16 months old, our children were too young to bring to most of these events. Even at 3.5, however, my son seems really interested in the process. I listen to our local public radio station A LOT, so by the day of the primary, he had heard of most of the candidates. His favorite candidate is Barack Obama, mainly because the name is fun for a preschooler to say over and over and over.

This year we went to vote as a family at our town's elementary school. Obviously our 16 month-old daughter was too young to get it, but our son was pretty excited. It helped that we saw his barber, a couple of neighbors, and one of his friends while we stood in line. We tried to explain that we were helping to choose a leader, like a "line leader" at school, but for the whole country. He sort of understands the idea of town, state, and country (it helps that he loves maps). Anyway, he came into the booth with me and watched me fill in the oval for my candidate (in our town, we have paper ballots -- no levers or buttons to push). Then we stood in line to check out and feed the ballot into the scan machine. He took the whole process very seriously.

I am looking forward to the general election in November, when we can vote as a family again. I hope it can become a family tradition.

[Jan]

I live in Washington state and we don't do party registration here. On primary day, you select a party on your ballot, then make your choices from there. You can choose on a per-election basis which party you want to influence.

I've been doing some reading about the delegate/superdelegate thing this year because I didn't understand it either. I was happier when I didn't understand it, honestly. Every state does something different, and the methods range from reasonable to sort of bizarre. (Examples of bizarre: this year in Florida they HELD a Democratic primary, but they won't be awarding any delegates based on it, because the DNC told Florida not to hold their primary before Feb 5 and they did anyway. Not kidding.)

Washington Democrats have caucuses this Saturday, then a voting primary on the 19th. The DNC can choose to award delegates based on either, but it's generally understood that the caucus results are what determine the delegates. We hold the primary because ... um ... er ... yeah, that's not totally clear to me. I think it has to do with the county auditor being required to offer up a primary vote for everyone and the auditor is not involved in the caucus voting.

The NY Times has a reasonably good explanation of how it all works. Here's the page on how the Democratic primaries work:
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/primaries/democraticprimaries/index.html

The part I really don't care for is the "unpledged" delegates who are party leaders who can vote for whoever they like, with no regard to how the people in their state voted. I just can't see the justification for this one.

My county has gone all-absentee as of last year, so election day is pretty anticlimactic on a personal level. I've never been to a caucus before, but I'm thinking about going on Saturday because for the first time I can remember, there is a candidate about whom I am really excited. Finally a vote that won't be simply the lesser of evils!

[Sheryl]

Last time I voted in PA (Pittsburgh) we had the lever machines. I thought I read that the county had replaced those since I moved, but I can't remember. Here in Louisiana, we have a kind of membrane/push button system.

Up until I was about 10 or so, I used to go into the voting booth with my parents. I wasn't allowed to pull any levers, but I was still fascinated with the process. I remember the first time I had a clue what was happening with voting was the 1976 presidential election. I was in kindergarten, and I used to read the newspaper with my dad every evening when he got home from work. He used to explain the editorial cartoons to me, which led to a discussion of the elections, the candidates, etc. (He was for Carter, even though he was a Republican. In fact, I don't think he ever voted for a Republican for President). It got me really excited about voting.

I remember being really angry in 1988 that I missed being able to vote in the Presidential election by 6 stinking months. And I remember being really angry at my friends who were already 18 and who didn't bother to register to vote. Actually, I still get angry with my friends who don't vote. Granted, there are fewer of them in Louisiana (where we love our politics - though we love our parties more, hence the reason we are voting on Saturday instead of today), but it still makes me angry.

[JessA]

I'm going to miss the lever machines when NY finally switches over to electronic voting. Maybe they can program the new machines to simulate the ka-CHUNK! sound that the lever makes when you slide it back into place to vote.

My 7.5 month old is far too young to care about voting yet, but my husband took him to vote on their way to daycare this morning and they made the local news (Brooklyn Channel 12 for Cablevision subscribers) just for being cute! Hopefully we can save the clip in a format that'll still be watchable by the time he's old enough to want to see it.

[Charisse]

Reporting from SF where we have the optical scan system Andromeda describes--after you mark your arrows you feed it through a machine into a box and the machine beeps if your ballot is readable; then the paper ones are retained in case of a recount.

Mouse is visiting a polling place with her preschool today and since she's a late to bed kid, will probably watch a bit of the election returns with us tonight. I've been trying to explain a little bit about who the president is and who we can choose, as well as who mommy is choosing and why. I would have taken her with me, but getting up early is a trial for her, so the school trip will suffice.

[liz]

MM handed out stickers at events last year and comes to vote with me.

[Katie B.]

This is going to be interesting in our family. My husband is actively uninterested in politics; he doesn't want to even watch movies with political themes. He and I are also pretty opposite in our beliefs (although we start from similar foundations, which is how we get along, IMO). I, on the other hand, while not being an activist of any sort (well, maybe a lactivist in a few months...) am... not passionate, so much... but I strongly believe in being involved in the process, and am of the opinion that you shouldn't complain about issues if you don't vote. I haven't voted since I moved to this state; it doesn't help that most people here tend to vote absentee, or that DH is so anti-politics. I do think I'll vote in November, though.

My parents got us interested and involved by openly discussing politics and their votes in front of us. Actually going to the polling place was optional by the time I was old enough to remember, but my parents always sat down and decided before they went how they were going to vote, with a few standard defaults in cases where they didn't know anything about the issues or candidates. I remember being very disappointed that I turned eighteen the day *after* election day that year, and so I didn't get to vote in that presidential election. I always voted in every election once I was old enough, however, until I moved out of state.

I don't know how I'll handle getting my kids interested, especially with DH such an active non-participant. Since I plan to homeschool, I think I'll have a good amount of opportunities to slip a little practical civics into my curriculum!

[Katie B.]

This is going to be interesting in our family. My husband is actively uninterested in politics; he doesn't want to even watch movies with political themes. He and I are also pretty opposite in our beliefs (although we start from similar foundations, which is how we get along, IMO). I, on the other hand, while not being an activist of any sort (well, maybe a lactivist in a few months...) am... not passionate, so much... but I strongly believe in being involved in the process, and am of the opinion that you shouldn't complain about issues if you don't vote. I haven't voted since I moved to this state; it doesn't help that most people here tend to vote absentee, or that DH is so anti-politics. I do think I'll vote in November, though.

My parents got us interested and involved by openly discussing politics and their votes in front of us. Actually going to the polling place was optional by the time I was old enough to remember, but my parents always sat down and decided before they went how they were going to vote, with a few standard defaults in cases where they didn't know anything about the issues or candidates. I remember being very disappointed that I turned eighteen the day *after* election day that year, and so I didn't get to vote in that presidential election. I always voted in every election once I was old enough, however, until I moved out of state.

I don't know how I'll handle getting my kids interested, especially with DH such an active non-participant. Since I plan to homeschool, I think I'll have a good amount of opportunities to slip a little practical civics into my curriculum!

[Katie B.]

Ack, double post! Sorry!

[Michele]

I took my kids with me today and we were the very first ones to vote in our voting booth, and only the third people in the voting district. Of course we waited in line at 6:45am for that opportunity. They are only 3, but I think it is important for me to instill in them now how important a right it is to be able to vote. I blogged about it on my own blog and on DC Metro Moms, where I am also a contributor.

[Tisha]

Up here in Canada, the process is much simpler - we have paper ballots that get put in a big cardboard box. My son's first political action was to spit up all over that ballot box during a particularly depressing election when he was about 8 months old. We were kind of proud.

[pnuts mama]

we just came home from voting- i'm totally going to tip my hand here and i don't mean to start a whole thing about who i voted for (because i don't think we should have that be the focus, or let it distract us from the importance of *voting*- that's what's important!) but i had tears in my eyes as i held my 2.5 year old daughters hand and had her turn the lever for the first time either of us have ever had the opportunity to vote for a woman for president. it was amazing.

i told her all morning we were going to go vote- how important it was and what a privilege it is to be able to choose our leader in a peaceful way- and that so many people in our world don't ever have that chance. i know she doesn't understand it now, but she will. we happen to be a very vocal political family so i imagine she'll either grow up rolling her eyes at her crazy parents or be inspired to fight for the political ideals that she believes in.

as far as primaries/delegates are concerned, i believe that the republican primaries are winner take all for delegates, and democrats award delegates based on percentage of votes for each candidate. i also think that candidates who have won delegates and then dropped out of the race are allowed to ask their delegates to support whichever candidate they want come convention day. it is confusing- what is even more confusing to me is the whole electoral college- ugh!

[Emily]

I'm also with Julie - I love voting, and always try to go in person, as a family, first thing in the morning. My 2yo got his own "I voted" sticker. Mine is on my coat, and my husband's is on his shirt so all his 3rd graders can see it.

As a child, I went with my parents into the booth, and I remember totally crowded polls and long lines, and campaigners hovering around the entrance (for local elections). In NY, too, and the schools had bake sales outside their polling-place gyms. I loved the levers, too, and the thunk of the big lever when you pulled the curtain. Out west here we have touch-screen kiosks. It still felt really powerful to vote today, but there were no lines, no crowds, no brownies.

I told all my (college) students to vote today, as class started. Lots of them had their stickers on, and were nodding. And one of them asked me after class if he could vote on campus. I am very proud of that.

[Inki]

Here in Norway, we had our local election back in September. I brought my then 3-week old girl with me, and she was supremely uninterested in the whole process :-)

My parents would never tell me who they voted for when I was a kid. This used to intrigue me and make the process seem more mysterious. When E is old enough, I think I'll tell her who I vote for and why so that she can see what factors go into making that decision.

For what it's worth, here in Norway we have about 14 parties (differs a little bit by county) and we select one of the different parties' lists in the voting booth. We can do write-ins of people from other parties if we want, or cross someone off the list if we don't like that person but we like the party as a whole - the system here is more party-based than person-based.

[sheSaid]

we live in Michigan... and the democratic national party said they wont count our primary because we had it too early... so I didn't vote.

But at 6 months the little guy has already participated in voting. I wore him while we walked to the polls to vote in a special local election in the fall.

My husband was apolitical when I met him but through force of will (mine) and being around people now who talk about it and care about it he is very into voting. I love all the ideas on how to involve your children. I know my family always always always talked politics growing up, even if they didn't agree and I knew it was my responsibility and the thing to do. It also taught me to think for myself but how to talk to others about their opinions without being mean.

[meggiemoo]

I always get a bit teary, too, when I go vote. It seems like such a solemn thing to do. We took our infant son with us last year, but this year we're taking the morning off of work to vote in the primaries, and he'll be in daycare.

I love the lines, being in an elementary school again, the baked goods the little kids sell outside the room, even the people with their placards outside trying to sway your vote one last time. I love recognizing my neighbors inside the room.

Basically, it feels like a very small-community thing to do in this increasingly non-connected world.

[Christine]

We have always taken the kids with us (bubble form here), to try to get them interested, but unless Tucson does something about their process, we may start doing an early ballot. There was a line out the door, and it had apparently been that way for hours. But no one was voting. They couldn't get people moved through the check-in process. Every person that finally finished up there would go vote and be out the door before the next person got their ballot.

But, we've been talking about voting for a couple of weeks, comparing candidates (we didn't force Max to listen, but he picks up a lot), and also being in a college town there's lots of activity on campus.

[Simone]

Moxie, I have to laugh, because I, too was preoccupied while I should have been learning these things. While helping out with our middle school's mock election, I was too distracted by the excitement of wearing my new Express tunic with shoulder pads--it was all the rage AND hid my prematurely large chest!

I always take my kids with me when I vote, not only because I don't really have a choice, but also because I want them to understand that it is an important part of contributing to our society. But last fall, after #1 turned 3, we voted in our local education levy. He really took an interest in the process, and I explained that we the people get to choose the people who make the rules for where we live. And sometimes, we get to vote on the rules themselves. I told him that voting means that everyone tells what they want, and whatever choice gets the most votes, happens. We then had to go down the path of "so many times what we want does not happen if not enough people feel the same way." But it was great--after that he was all into voting...what movies he and his friends watch, what we have for supper, etc. Sadly, though, we have no fun levers to pull. Just a sharpie to fill in the circles, then a machine that reads the dots. #1 did get to feed the machine, though, which looks like a giant shredder.

Also, I second those that get emotional. Voting really gets me (along with listening to the national anthem). I became a naturalized citizen in 2001. I'm lucky to have had that choice.

[Cloud]

I'm feeling a bit cheated that there were no kids with baked goods to sell at my polling place.

But then my polling place was a church. The fact that my polling place is usually a church seriously amuses my New Zealander husband.

[Julie]

Does anyone out there know how polling places get chosen? I'm wondering b/c I work at an elementary school and would LOVE for them to have it here in November - we have the room to do it..in fact the first time I voted it was here at this school. What a fabulous opportunity for the kids!!!!

[Shelley]

Former ex-pat in Sweden, and boy does the Scandinavian system make sense to me, where as Inki explained, you vote for ideas rather than personalities.

Now in PA, and we've changed to electronic voting machines. Kinda hate it -- want a paper trail!

[Dawn]

In PA, we're supposed to have electronic machines, but a lot of the polling places have one electronic machine and then several punch card booths (they let you choose which way you want to vote). Where I used to live, they were all electronic, but it was closer to the city. My current polling place has about 1,000 potential voters, I think, so the one electronic machine is sufficient for those who want to use it.

Our polling places are mainly churches and schools too. I think they use polling places and schools because they are "public" places that have large enough lobbies to house the voting machines, the registration people and the monitoring people without being uncomfortable. The only other places I can think of are office buildings and that would probably be considered improper somehow.

We don't vote until April, I think, so the primaries will probably be over by then.

Not to get into who to vote for or anything, but I second the commenter above who got teary about taking her daughter to vote for a woman for president. As a child of the "free to be you and me" 70s, that is a really exciting prospect.

[Sheryl]

Speaking as a Democrat, either candidate is history making, and voting for either will be a pleasure.

In Louisiana, campaign workers and campaign materials are not allowed within 50 yards of a polling place. That was a shock for me the first time I voted here. I was used to the outside of the polling place being covered with political posters. Oh, and schools and churches aren't allowed to have bake sales either, which is kind of depressing. But I guess becuase of the history of corruption and vote tampering in this state, they don't want to take any chances.

[sue]

As a Democrat, I've never been so excited about a primary, or an election, period (and I've voted in every election since I turned 18 - even local). Though they might be overly similar philosophically, the fact that I'll get the opportunity to vote for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton come November really gives me hope that maybe we haven't completely messed things up in the past few years. I also LOVE the "I Can Be President" buttons that the Clinton campaign is giving out, and my daughter has been wearing one for the past few days (of course, then I went and voted for Obama. I think he has a better chance of beating McCain).

I've always taken my daughter to vote with me, and now I take my son, too. For the first time, my daughter is starting to get it a little (she's 3.5). I think it's a great opportunity to start the conversation.

Words can't express how excited I am to have these two candidates on the primary ballot. I feel like our country is at a real turning point, and that with either of them we have a real chance to right some wrongs (I actually think McCain would be ok, too, but worry about who he would choose as a running mate, since he's about the only Republican that doesn't give me the heebie-jeebies)

[Maria]

Our primary isn't until next week, but I took my daughter with me when I voted last year in the statewide election. She told EVERYONE there, including the campaigners outside in the parking lot, the other people in line, and ALL the election officials that she was wearing underwear, NOT a diaper.

In Massachusetts where I lived until 2 years ago, I always had an old-fashioned paper ballot where you made a check mark next to your choice and then slipped it into a big wooden box with a crank on the side and the ancient guy working the election turned the crank and a bell rang for each vote. I loved that.

Last year here in Maryland I used an electronic machine which was far less satisfying and which I didn't trust nearly as much to accurately record my vote.

[Suzie]

I was watching your political process with interest and then realised your actual voting for parties hadn't even started. Looks like this takes a lo-o-o-ong time. Having said that I love the 'messiness' of real democracy and wish we had a system that allowed greater discussion of ideas.

I live in Australia and we just had a federal election (as opposed to our state elections) and we had to vote for our house of representatives and senate. This is a two house Westminster system much like they have in the UK - except in Australia both of our houses are occupied by elected parlimentarians.

To vote we fill numbers in boxes on pieces of paper. Its not so bad on the house of reps with only around 8 numbers to fill in - but this year in the senate there were up to 80 people running - the paper stretched WELL over 1 metre and we complete the forms in booths just wide enough to fit in.

My 2 yo daughter joined us for a happy voting experience and came into our squeezy booth to draw on the how-to-vote paraphenalia we are bombarded with. Voting is compulsory in Australia for residents over 18 yo, and is quite a social, busy day, with everyone out and about voting. So my daughter also enjoyed the sausage sizzles (BBQ) outside and lamingtons.

I love an election, and think our compulsory voting system is excellent - keeping in mind that you don't need to fill in the ballot paper if you don't want to, or if you write anything on it the vote doesn't count - but you do need to turn up on the day and have your name ticked off (or you get fined).

Can't help but watch what is happening with your election but I think I really need to research your system more!

Happy Primary Voting Day!

[Dr. Pugawug]

When I moved to San Francisco over a decade ago, I was surprised to see that elections took place in garages and laundromats, not churches or school gyms. It's kind of fascinating to peek inside your civic-minded neighbors' lives, and see what kinds of clutter they've amassed alongside the privacy booths and scan-o-matic machines.

This morning, I pushed my 3-year old up the hill on her trike, and found a short line at our polling place. I tried to interest her in the ballot, but she only had eyes for the collection of hiking boots in the garage, and the big pile of "I VOTED!" stickers out front.

[hedra]

They all came in with me, though M didn't WANT to vote. Not unless she was voting for herself.

[Maria]

I wish we had compulsory voting here. Rather than a right or a privilege, it makes total sense to me for it to be a requirement.

[Nastassja]

While my little dude is a bit young to vote I do know of one way that you may be able to get a school-aged kid interested. I was a girl scout straight through high school (yes, I was nerdy) and any time an election came up we would "man the polls" at the schools in VA. We'd sit there at a little table and help the kids fill out their faux ballots. The schools scan them in and local news sources would report the results. I don't know if any other areas/states do this, but I thought it was pretty neat and the kids always seemed to enjoy it.

Here's an article (albeit an old one) about the first "Kids Voting" in VA Beach. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1996/vp961104/11020012.htm

[Elizabeth]

Just a quick note on the history of polling places in the United States. Once upon a time, when only men were allowed to vote, polling took place in very public places such as town commons. Often, alcohol made its way into the process, and candidates purchased votes with drinks. By the end of election day, many men were drunk and there were lots of fights, so elections had the reputation of being dangerous and rough-and-tumble.

Those opposed to suffrage for women used the danger of polling places and elections as a reason to exclude women from the process. Once women won the right to vote, elections officials changed polling places to more traditionally feminine locales; schools and churches were obvious choices.

[ALG]

I voted in a bus station (in Manhattan) yesterday! I just moved to a new neighborhood in August, and the bus station felt very different from the elementary schools I had voted in previously.

[zgma]

We vote as a family on absentee ballots, then turn them in at the polling place (with the boys coming with us). We had a big discussion this time over the dinner table about candidates and ballot measures, and pored over the election materials together.

This time, after my partner and I voted, we held a vote for the president of the household pets, which was thoroughly exciting for our 5 year old. It was between Meta the frog and Fleep the poodle. Well, Meta won because the cats categorically refused to vote for the dog. They did a bit of strategic voting and shut him out! I wouldn't say that Meta was the candidate with the most enthusiasm, but perhaps he has the most experience (i.e., less likely to chew up the belongings of his electorate). Of course, we had a discussion afterwards about "What if the poodle had a computer-savvy friend who could mess with the voting machines..." Then we held a vote for president among the syllables and syllable strings most often uttered by the baby: Dah, Buh, and BadubadubadAAAAAAH! BadubadubadAAAAAH won, with the baby casting the tie-breaking vote.

[ugg outlet store]

I wonder what year that was because my parents got six-foot heroes for just about every party I can remember as a kid. I'm going to investigate. Stay tuned or help me out by Commenting below.