I took my daughter with me to vote early. I explained how it all worked and read aloud all the signs on the walls. She felt it was her duty to report me for having my cell phone in the polling place, (thanks Sarah.) Someone who is that rule conscious will surely exercise her right to vote in the future!

LOL - Thanks Sarah. I'm sure she will vote.

I think voting goes directly to your message of self-empowerment. Everyone has voice and all of our votes are equal, that is the nature of democracy. Regardless of gender or class or ethnicity, all our votes are equal.

I know Punditdad - isn't it awesome. Unfortunately women voted less often than men - even after they won the vote.

But, I'm not sure that will be true this year - this year women are emotionally invested. Finally!

Very exciting times.

Tracee,

Awesome post as usual!

My husband and I have taken our daughter to vote since she was a baby. Literally. She hasn't missed witnessing a single vote.

We don't just vote in Presidential elections. We vote in the primaries and she goes with us every single time. She LOVES it!!

She goes into the booth twice... once with me and then we switch and she goes in with my husband.

The volunteers working at the polls get a kick out of watching her excitement every time we do this little ritual. (We take her to all of the school budget votes too). :)

So each time we vote, she gets to see the process twice... once inside that voting booth with each parent.

In our state the physical part of actually voting means pulling the lever across to close the curtain, pulling down the tabs for the candidates we are voting for, and pulling the lever again to open the curtain back up. (We explain to her in age-appropriate terms -outside of the polling place - how we make decisions about who we choose to vote for.

Years ago I had moved to another state and was surprised to see that my vote was literally cast on a paper ballot. That blew my mind because I was so accustomed to the voting booths I had gotten used to over the years.

We don't just show her the mechanics of using the voting machine. We make sure she understands that it isn't a game, it is to be taken seriously, and that her voice MATTERS and it will be counted with just as much weight as ours are once she turns 18.

In the meantime, she is learning more and more about how to get informed about candidates' views, how to connect candidates' views to her life and our family's situation, some of the factors that go into our decisions when picking a candidate, etc.

She loves voting!! She knows that she has to wait until she's 18 to vote herself and that she will only get to cast one vote then (not two!) :)

She also knows the importance of voting, how to go about doing it, and that women in this country didn't always have the right to vote.

She knows about women's suffrage both from what my husband and I have told her and from what she saw in the American Girl Samantha movie where the Cornelia character works to get the right to vote for women.

She has also been to the National Women's Hall of Fame and she read some of the biographical posters on the wall there... many of which talk about women's suffrage.

Oh, and did I mention that she just turned 8 years old?? Yes, we are being proactive. :)

Ten more years of this routine and she'll be itching to vote once she's 18. :)

I am confident that she will never take the right for granted!

My husband and I have engrained the notion into her head that she has not just a right to vote but a responsibility to make a WELL-INFORMED vote once she reaches legal age to do so!

Jeanne

My strongest memory of my parents going to vote is of the year that Australia held a plebiscite to choose the national song. I was 6 years old and I REALLY wanted Waltzing Matilda to win (it didn't). I'm pretty sure mum and dad voted the "right" way LOL

Having compulsory voting means that for us the focus is on teaching the kids the importance of taking it all seriously and not wasting your vote and to think in terms of choosing the best (or least worst) of the options on offer. I've had a couple of goes at explaining the preferential voting system to them, hopefully by the time they're 18 they'll have it figured out.

Btw, all voting in Australia is done on paper ballots, no fancy machines for us!

I have a paper ballot this year. I used to live in NY like Jeanne and that machine totally threw me off my game. I was so scared I would screw it up - it seemed complicated.

Some voting is now down with computers - I had a choice this year and chose the paper ballot. It seemed less prone to error.

Mim I didn't realize Australia had compulsory voting. I didn't know there was such a thing.

Yep, when we say "don't forget to vote" to each other it's because we don't want to cop a fine for not voting!

lol about boating. I took my daughter to vote for HRC, too. I asked both kids if they want to vote with me this year and my 10 year old said "definitely!" and my 7 year old said "if I can bring my DS".

I took my daughter with me to vote early. I explained how it all worked and read aloud all the signs on the walls. She felt it was her duty to report me for having my cell phone in the polling place, (thanks Sarah.) Someone who is that rule conscious will surely exercise her right to vote in the future!

LOL - Thanks Sarah. I'm sure she will vote.

I think voting goes directly to your message of self-empowerment. Everyone has voice and all of our votes are equal, that is the nature of democracy. Regardless of gender or class or ethnicity, all our votes are equal.

I know Punditdad - isn't it awesome. Unfortunately women voted less often than men - even after they won the vote.

But, I'm not sure that will be true this year - this year women are emotionally invested. Finally!

Very exciting times.

Tracee,

Awesome post as usual!

My husband and I have taken our daughter to vote since she was a baby. Literally. She hasn't missed witnessing a single vote.

We don't just vote in Presidential elections. We vote in the primaries and she goes with us every single time. She LOVES it!!

She goes into the booth twice... once with me and then we switch and she goes in with my husband.

The volunteers working at the polls get a kick out of watching her excitement every time we do this little ritual. (We take her to all of the school budget votes too). :)

So each time we vote, she gets to see the process twice... once inside that voting booth with each parent.

In our state the physical part of actually voting means pulling the lever across to close the curtain, pulling down the tabs for the candidates we are voting for, and pulling the lever again to open the curtain back up. (We explain to her in age-appropriate terms -outside of the polling place - how we make decisions about who we choose to vote for.

Years ago I had moved to another state and was surprised to see that my vote was literally cast on a paper ballot. That blew my mind because I was so accustomed to the voting booths I had gotten used to over the years.

We don't just show her the mechanics of using the voting machine. We make sure she understands that it isn't a game, it is to be taken seriously, and that her voice MATTERS and it will be counted with just as much weight as ours are once she turns 18.

In the meantime, she is learning more and more about how to get informed about candidates' views, how to connect candidates' views to her life and our family's situation, some of the factors that go into our decisions when picking a candidate, etc.

She loves voting!! She knows that she has to wait until she's 18 to vote herself and that she will only get to cast one vote then (not two!) :)

She also knows the importance of voting, how to go about doing it, and that women in this country didn't always have the right to vote.

She knows about women's suffrage both from what my husband and I have told her and from what she saw in the American Girl Samantha movie where the Cornelia character works to get the right to vote for women.

She has also been to the National Women's Hall of Fame and she read some of the biographical posters on the wall there... many of which talk about women's suffrage.

Oh, and did I mention that she just turned 8 years old?? Yes, we are being proactive. :)

Ten more years of this routine and she'll be itching to vote once she's 18. :)

I am confident that she will never take the right for granted!

My husband and I have engrained the notion into her head that she has not just a right to vote but a responsibility to make a WELL-INFORMED vote once she reaches legal age to do so!

Jeanne

My strongest memory of my parents going to vote is of the year that Australia held a plebiscite to choose the national song. I was 6 years old and I REALLY wanted Waltzing Matilda to win (it didn't). I'm pretty sure mum and dad voted the "right" way LOL

Having compulsory voting means that for us the focus is on teaching the kids the importance of taking it all seriously and not wasting your vote and to think in terms of choosing the best (or least worst) of the options on offer. I've had a couple of goes at explaining the preferential voting system to them, hopefully by the time they're 18 they'll have it figured out.

Btw, all voting in Australia is done on paper ballots, no fancy machines for us!

I have a paper ballot this year. I used to live in NY like Jeanne and that machine totally threw me off my game. I was so scared I would screw it up - it seemed complicated.

Some voting is now down with computers - I had a choice this year and chose the paper ballot. It seemed less prone to error.

Mim I didn't realize Australia had compulsory voting. I didn't know there was such a thing.

Yep, when we say "don't forget to vote" to each other it's because we don't want to cop a fine for not voting!

lol about boating. I took my daughter to vote for HRC, too. I asked both kids if they want to vote with me this year and my 10 year old said "definitely!" and my 7 year old said "if I can bring my DS".