It’s primary day in Maryland!
Fresh from exercising my rights of suffrage!
When I went to vote this morning, I had Minnie Kehoe on my mind. When I exited the polls, I said out loud, “Thanks, Minnie!”
Minnie was a trailblazer for professional women. She knew she had to keep her cool even in the face of cads, whereas I would have just told them where to go.
The polling clerk (a man) looked at me and smiled.
I’m sure he didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. Maybe his name is Minnie. Haha!
It went very smoothly — no long lines, everyone was pleasant and courteous. The only odd thing about the voting was that we had paper ballots. This is a first in all the years I’ve been voting here in Maryland. I asked the polling clerk about it, and he said, “some people wanted it that way.” No chance of hanging chads, though. It was all fill-in-the-circle.
There was an electronic scanner at the exit door, in which I had to insert the legal-paper-sized ballot. It sucked the document with my selections into its large, black plastic maw, and then, a patriotic screen popped up, saying, “Thank you for voting!”
As I exited, the polling clerk I called “Minnie” told me not to forget my sticker.
On the way out, I filled out a little survey praising my suffrage experience, and then, decided to volunteer as an election judge at my polling place come November. I’ve never done it before, and my name was the first on the list. I figured the experience would be interesting.
The schools are closed on primary days in my county because many of the public schools serve as polling places. I tried to entice my kids to come along for the civics lesson. No luck. I even said, “there will be stickers,” hoping to at least get my youngest to come along, but no luck.
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jsmith532
Professor,
Communication, Arts, and the Humanities
The University of Maryland Global Campus
Tell my story. 
And also thanks to your great-grandmother who risked it all
Amen to that, my friend!