Photo by: iStock

Stickers for Everyone: Relishing the Right to Vote

Photo by: iStock



Right now my toddler loves coming to vote with me; she loves getting the sticker. And, truth be told, I love getting the sticker too.

Maybe it’s because we’re conditioned to love stickers in elementary school. We got stickers when we did something well: they were our teacher’s acknowledgement of our effort. Remember all those small stickers with encouraging words on them? Great job! Excellent! Awesome! Stupendous! After all, it takes effort to vote, in getting to the polls after a long day and waiting in the lines. But, maybe I love the sticker most because it shares the importance I place on voting. With so few eligible people voting, that sticker represents my participation in the process.

I take my daughter with me to the polls to instill the importance of the political process. Voting lines are the only lines I can think of where everyone waits patiently. There is no eye rolling or impatient foot tapping. There is no loud sighing at the length of the wait or disgruntled comments mumbled just audibly. Everyone who shows up to vote seems to enjoy the process. There is often polite conversation (devoid of politics of course) or a smile shared here or there as if to say “So glad you made it!”

I’ve seen some of the better aspects of humanity in line. I’ve seen voters allow parents with young children to go ahead in particularly long lines. I’ve also seen strangers assist the elderly and disabled, making their wait more comfortable with a chair. I’ve seen members of my community step up and volunteer to man the polls to ensure the process proceeds smoothly.

I didn’t always vote, although I enjoyed the right. I just never really made the time to do so at the beginning of college. It wasn’t until I neared graduation that I wondered how exactly my tax dollars were being spent. I got curious and did more research into my elected representatives. Some were great. Others weren’t. So I started to vote to make my voice count.

My candidates don’t always win. And that’s okay. It’s important that I stood up for him or her and let them know that I agreed with their views. My vote is my voice saying “I agree with you. I think this direction is the right one.”

The most important aspect of voting is that it hasn’t always been a right. In fact, nearly every person was excluded from voting in the United States except land-owning white men—property determined the ability to vote. This country passed a series of laws prohibiting certain races and genders from voting for centuries. In 1790, The Naturalization Act prohibited those of Asian descent, among others, from voting. In 1807 women who enjoyed the right to vote in certain western territories were stripped of this right. In 1848 The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo made it virtually impossible for Mexican Americans to vote; although granted citizenship, voting rights could be legally denied to anyone based on their English proficiency and/or literacy among other disqualifying aspects. In 1857, the Dred Scott v. Sandford case declared that African Americans weren’t legally citizens and therefore couldn’t vote (citizenship would be granted nearly a decade later, but not voting rights). It wasn’t until the 15th Amendment in 1870 struck down any previous laws barring citizens from voting based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” that voting rights began to be granted to non-white males. But it took another 95 years for all men to be considered equal at the polling stations: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 struck down many discriminatory practices at the state level aimed to bar minorities from voting.

However even today, discriminatory practices are still employed in the hopes of silencing minority votes. Women before me fought relentlessly to allow my voice the right to be heard. During the late 19th century women from all economic and racial backgrounds banded together to fight for the right to vote. Naomi Anderson, a black suffragist and temperance advocate, fought for women’s rights both in Chicago and later in San Francisco during the same time of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Suffragettes were jailed, their children taken from them, their lives torn asunder just in the hopes that one day women’s voices would count equally.

I vote as a constant act of thankfulness that I am able to do so. Today, at any given time, women hold approximately 20% of congressional seats. This statistic saddens me as women actually outnumber men in the country; if we want a government that represents the people, we need more women in it—at all levels and from all ethnicities and backgrounds. We need more women in local, state, and national politics.

If my daughter wants to be a politician one day, I need to keep voting. I need to vote for candidates that believe in equality. I hope that taking my daughter to vote, and waiting in the lines, imparts the importance of the act. And, hopefully one day the United States will join other countries including the Philippines, Ireland, Finland, Panama, Liberia, and Iceland in welcoming female leadership—perhaps even one of our daughters.


After surviving ten years as a high school English teacher, Kathryn opted to create imaginary worlds and spend her days hunting for ladybugs with her daughter. She has written for ChildGood and Babies and Breastfeeding magazines as well as various sites around the web.

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