School was closed today, so after the kids ate breakfast we got dressed and walked to our polling place. It was great weather for a walk, and the poll wasn't crowded at all when we got there.
We checked in and the kids picked a booth. I voted for the candidates I believe in, made decisions on local ballot questions and then we submitted my ballot. It was number 208, and that was around 9:10 am or so.
The lady at the scanning machine gave Maggie, Cassie, Nate and I our 'I Voted' stickers. The kids were excited. Then she gave Nate's yellow bear a sticker, too. Yellow Bear wasn't saying who he voted for, though. :)
Lino just called and he is done voting, he went straight from work. During elections, the parking lot right in front of the doors is usually full of candidates and supporters doing last minute campaigning.
At the primary, I felt pressured by a candidate who had a supporter approach me at the door speaking onlyPortuguese to me. Our neighborhood is primarily Portuguese, the polling place is at a church that has a large Portuguese congregation. However, don't assume that I don't speak English. Don't harass me as I walk in to vote.
I called the Secretary of State's office when I got home that day, and he told me by law, candidates, etc are required to be at least 50 feet away from the door. He said if not, report them to a poll worker next time.
Well, when Lino drove in, the main parking lot had supporters, etc. When he parked near the door, he was near a guy who was campaigning, less than 50 feet from the door. He tried to give Lino pamphlets, and when Lino declined, stating that he couldn't evn be that close, the guy was all "Says who?"
Lino stopped in his tracks and told him it was the law. He also told the guy that his candidate just lost a vote. When Lino left the building, he said the guys truck and signs were still parked, but the guy was in a chair far away from the door.
Good for him.
Now we wait for results. I am sure we will be flipping channels, but I like NBC, so we will watch that mostly.
Hope you all voted!
Showing posts with label election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label election. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
A Woman's Right to Vote
WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE
This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.
Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
Some were abused horribly for trying to gain that right.
These women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.
Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'
They beat Lucy Burns ( pictured in prison above), chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging! All through the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
They hurled Dora Lewis (above) into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul (above), embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because- -why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
*******
The above was in an email that my sister sent me. Women have had the right to vote for less than 100 years! I can't imagine not being able to speak my opinion about something, or being told that I am not important becasue I am a woman. Sure, I have encountered the occasional chauvinist, but to endure that on a daily basis, wow. I am grateful that those women had the courage to stand for what they believed in.
A movie by HBO Films, Iron Jawed Jewels
A wiki entry on Women's Right to Vote
The Nineteenth ammendment to the Constitution of the United States of America:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Have you tuned in for the last 2 years? The election is tomorrow......Vote. We have the right, it would be such a waste to not use it.
This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.
Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
Some were abused horribly for trying to gain that right.
These women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.
Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'
They beat Lucy Burns ( pictured in prison above), chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging! All through the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
They hurled Dora Lewis (above) into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul (above), embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because- -why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
*******
The above was in an email that my sister sent me. Women have had the right to vote for less than 100 years! I can't imagine not being able to speak my opinion about something, or being told that I am not important becasue I am a woman. Sure, I have encountered the occasional chauvinist, but to endure that on a daily basis, wow. I am grateful that those women had the courage to stand for what they believed in.
A movie by HBO Films, Iron Jawed Jewels
A wiki entry on Women's Right to Vote
The Nineteenth ammendment to the Constitution of the United States of America:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Have you tuned in for the last 2 years? The election is tomorrow......Vote. We have the right, it would be such a waste to not use it.
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