Alex's First Election

Yesterday was Primary Election Day here in Ohio. As I've stated before, Ted and I both feel that voting is NOT just a privilege or a right; it's a DUTY, and we take it very seriously.

Joey went to vote in the afternoon, but Ted and I had chiropractic appointments in the early evening, so we went to those, then picked Alex up and the three of us went to vote.

Although Alex is 17 right now, he'll be 18 by the time of the General Election. Therefore, he is eligible to vote in the primary, but for candidates only....no issues. He has taken this EXTREMELY seriously, and we are so proud of him for that. The women at the polling place also told him how great it was that he was voting.

The polls closed at 7:30 pm, and we got there about 7:05. Because of Alex's rather unique situation, he was not able to use the "touch screen" system to vote. He had to fill out the front of a large envelope, then had to use a provisional ballot, which meant that he had to fill in the ovals in front of the candidate's names he was voting for, with a special pencil they gave him.

After voting we received a sticker, but the lady who was giving them out, gave Alex a strip of them and said he should put them all on to celebrate his first election. He didn't put them ALL on, but he put on several.

The ladies told us that he was the ONLY 17 year old they had vote yesterday, BUT only two 17 year olds had registered, so that's 50%. I read in this morning's newspaper that throughout our entire county, there were a fair amount of 17 year olds who voted...79 to be exact.

There was a higher voter turn out than what was expected, and I think that's great. At our precinct there are at least 12 registered voters with our last name. As we finished signing the register, one of the women said, "Well, all of the *******s have now voted!" (meaning the ones with our last name) Seven of us are closely related, and the rest are distantly related, so it was nice to know that they all take it as seriously as we do.

Congratulations to Joey for voting in his first presidential primary, and congratulations to Alex for voting in not only his first presidential primary, but his first election!