Voting in-person on Election Day has shared history
I’m a 26-year-old voter who cast her ballot in-person during the 2020 general election.
There were 508,443 total ballots received in Montgomery County. Of that total, the county received 243,408 mail-in ballots. There were 609,250 registered voters and an 82.91 percent voter turnout, according to the election resources webpage.
While I’d like to have had some inspiring reason for my decision to vote in-person on Election Day, it really came down to the fact that I couldn’t make up my mind.
I weighed my options amid the COVID-19 pandemic: obtain a mail-in ballot, vote early at one of the county’s four satellite offices or take the more traditional route of voting inperson.
I also talked with friends and family about their voting plans, hoping it would help to inform my own decision-making process.
I finally opted for early voting. The only problem: Those interested in going that route needed to have made an appointment. By the time I made up my mind, there was only one day left, no appointment slots available, and I wasn’t able to make it to the county’s voter services office in Norristown.
My voting plan might have hit a snag, but no matter. I still had the option to vote in-person. I’d bring a mask, hand sanitizer and my own pen. It would be fine, I told myself.
Fast forward to Election Day, and I was ready.
It had been my second time voting in Pennsylvania since turning 18 years old.
The first was during my freshman year of college at Penn State in 2012 when President Barack Obama was running for his second term against Republican challenger Mitt Romney. I was so excited to cast my ballot and get my “I voted” sticker.
After living out of state for the last four years, I had finally returned home to the Keystone State, and it turned out that I would be voting here in another presidential election.
I woke up early in the morning, well before the polls were set to open. The one thing I couldn’t seem to gauge was how long the lines would be; how long the overall process would take.
Over the past few weeks,
I’d seen photos on Instagram news accounts of lines stretching block after block in major cities like New York where voters turned out for early voting.
Would it be the same situation in a Philadelphia suburb? I ended up voting with my dad who suggested getting to the polling place after rush hour. It turned out he made the right call.
When the polls opened at 7 a.m., news circulated about long lines throughout a number of precincts throughout Montgomery County.
When we showed up to our community polling place around 10 a.m., there were maybe 20 people ahead of us, all wearing masks, and spread out in a socially distanced manner.
We were in line for about 10 minutes before a poll worker approached us, asking if we had a last name between the letters K through Z? We nodded and were escorted inside the building to a separate line for the corresponding last names. After waiting in silence atop a taped x on the floor, I was directed inside to check in. After doing so, I was given a black Sharpie, as well as a ballot inside a laminated manilla envelope that was designated for privacy pur
poses, and was directed to a cardboard voting booth. I painstakingly filled in the ovals of my choosing as I went down the ballot for the national, state and local candidates.
I scanned my ballot, and handed the kind poll worker my materials while chatting briefly about the weather. She gave me the coveted “I voted” sticker, and just like that, I was done.
Like any good millennial, I made sure to take a selfie with my sticker.
I met my dad outside with a smile, proud of what we’d accomplished. It was
a nice thing to do together and it’s somewhat of a tradition. He said he “always brought me” with him on Election Day in almost every election, starting with the George W. Bush vs. Al Gore race in 2000.
He recalled holding my hand as we went inside the enclosed booth, making sure to close the drape and telling me which buttons to push for him. We continued that tradition for many more elections.
I grew up watching NBC Nightly News at the dinner table as the anchors changed from Tom Brokaw to Brian Williams, and now Lester Holt, and I’d always expressed an interest in politics.
After this historic election, I asked my dad why he took me with him to the polls on Election Day, and he simply said “so you’d understand the democratic process.”
It’s been three days since the polls closed and I’m curious. Was I part of the minority in my decision?
Like any reporter, I texted a dozen friends, and fellow millennials, across the country living in Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to find out how they decided to vote. It turned out that I wasn’t alone in my choice.
It was actually a pretty even cross section who either voted by mail, voted early, voted in-person, or requested a mail-in ballot but ended up dropping it off either at a dropbox or county election office.
As a young voter who voted in person, it’s clear that I, like so many others, performed their civic duty in an election season that no one will soon forget.