Well, there's one way to get more people to vote.
"Mommy, can you put on a Thalia show?"
"No sweetie, this is the news. They're talking about the election. Remember how I told you that we're going into a voting booth together soon and we're going to vote for Obama?"
"What's a voting booth?"
"Well you've been in one with me every year. It's like a little room with a curtain that we pull close, and then you pull a big red lever and push some buttons to let people know who we want to be the president."
"And maybe it's a helicopter! Maybe the you push the buttons and it goes UP! Up, mommy! Up in the sky, like the helicopter at Playland! And then it comes down and we can get some cotton candy. Can we go there now mommy? Can we?"
"Maybe in 2012."
"No sweetie, this is the news. They're talking about the election. Remember how I told you that we're going into a voting booth together soon and we're going to vote for Obama?"
"What's a voting booth?"
"Well you've been in one with me every year. It's like a little room with a curtain that we pull close, and then you pull a big red lever and push some buttons to let people know who we want to be the president."
"And maybe it's a helicopter! Maybe the you push the buttons and it goes UP! Up, mommy! Up in the sky, like the helicopter at Playland! And then it comes down and we can get some cotton candy. Can we go there now mommy? Can we?"
"Maybe in 2012."
posted by Mom101 at 1:16 PM
38 Comments:
Every time I go into a voting booth, I have a moment of panic in which I worry that some terrible demon will possess me and force me to vote for the right to life candidate.
Maybe I'll bring India with me this year--she'll protect me.
Last year, my then-4-year-old thought we were going boating. He was very excited, but a little hesitant because it was so dark.
After I was done voting, he wondered when we would get to the boat, and was terribly disappointed to know we were on our way home.
It's somewhat disappointing that Iowa doesn't have 'voting booths' just these little blue plastic suitcase like things with legs and short sides to prevent people from seeing who you are voting for on your paper ballot. (No chads - connect the arrows with special black marker.)
But I somehow feel more secure that my vote for Obama will get counted when it's on paper than if I would just tell it to a machine. I can't believe it's only a month away!
They moved our voting place so this year, instead of the local Starbucks/Train station we have to go to a firehouse. Firemen...yum...weirdly Republican tendencies...ewww.
How unfortunate that Alexis thinks some type of right to life influence would be "demonic." What a f@&*ed up world we live in...
Katie, surely some anti-abortion folks think that voting for a pro-choice candidate would be demonic, no?
oh man, that's cute. maybe you can go have celebratory ice cream sundaes with the girls after instead of flying away...
(i'm a legal alien and have been nervous for american voters since the florida recount fiasco after which bush became president. pfff...)
Actually, no, I don't agree with that statement. I personally didn't even state if I'm pro-choice or pro-life, and quite frankly, it doesn't matter. I can stomach anyone's beliefs when they are presented in respectful ways. Alexis' comment, in my opinion, is sad.
And if a pro-life person considered voting for a pro-choice candidate to be demonic, I would find that sad, too.
Have fun at the polls with your girls!
Thank you Katie! Unfortunately it won't be as fun as if the booth took off into the sky. I fear it's destined to be a disappointing experience.
Actually, maybe we should rig it so that if someone votes for McCain/Palin, the voting booth WILL shoot up straight into the sky and deposit them in, say, Guam, without any money. Or better yet, Russia, with just a big sign that says, "Hey Alaska, I'm over here! Please come and get me!".
I like that idea very much.
I've never had the opportunity to vote in a booth. I'm from Oregon, and all our voting is done by mail.
Quinlan freaked when I told her I was going voting.
She was like "Who will take care of us when you are gone?" she asked -- like I was going on Survivor or something.
I suppose depending on where I vote, it could be like that.
Fairly Odd Mother: love it! :)
Dude, I'd TOTALLY go voting more often if the booth was a fun ride.
That's awesome. That girl is a maverick.
Yesterday my 3-year old son Landon asked when he would be old enough to vote for Rocko Bama.
If only....
the mama bird diaries:
Ha! That damn word...maverick...I'm hearing it in my dreams lately...enough already! :)
Annabel used to be squarely in the Obama camp (because someone gave her a pin) but now she understands the idea of a write-in vote and she'd like to write in her former babysitter, Lori. Who, she claims, has the time to run the country now that she's no longer our babysitter.
I am SO not telling her about Sarah Palin.
sooo cute.
I have been trying to teach my 18 month old to say "Yay Obama", but it always sounds like "yay, bubba".
I've taken my oldest to vote with me a number of times, and was rather proud when he dragged me over to show me where they had set up voting booths in his school (not our regular polling place). I actually make an effort to remain neutral when discussing the whole process, but it isn't easy.
Oh, and I live in such a small NE town, that our ballots are paper and hand cranked into an ancient wooden box. When the marked ballot is received and the crank begins to turn, a bell dings, and numbers like an old gas pump tell you how many have voted at that precinct so far.
Very retro.
I'm doing a mail in ballot this time around, which I'm a bit sad about. I want to pull the elevator button. Now I have this weird urge to eat candy and watch Willy Wonka.
Liz, that kid of yours is awesome.
Oh and I'm laughing my ass off over here at Fairly Odd Mother.
Go Obama!! Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Anyways, I went with my mom to the voting booths when I was little too and I have some of the fondest memories of the little old ladies that verify your id giving me tons of I Voted stickers. It was awesome. I plan to take my boys with me when I go next month even though they're too young to understand what it is all about. This will be one life changing event and I want to be able to say when they're older, you were with mommy when she voted in that election.
Yes, but what about the hanging chads? Who will explain the hanging chads?
alexis...WTF??Pro life demon????
I love Thalia's version - can we at least get the cotton candy going? That would help make up for the fact that we just have boring old paper here in the Twin Cities.
Maybe if they did hand out cotton candy after you voted then more people would bother being involved in politics. It's something to consider.
I think Thalia has a future at the local Board of Elections.
I've taken my son to vote with me every time I've voted since he was born, so he has no illusions that the process will be very exciting for him. He is, however, looking forward to the "I Voted!" sticker, and the chance to pester me about buying more used books from the library (which is my polling place).
Hecks yeah! She's got the right idea.
I'd totally vote for free cotton candy.
I think she's on to something!
hey will you join us tomorrow in de-lurking day. I've done buttons and the buttons and the codes are on my blog (which looks crazy because it is under construction, but the posts are there with the code, or email me if you want, I did one for blogherads (I just got accepted) one for TwitterMoms Social Network and one for Mom Central Bloggers Social Network
Anyway, it is tomorrow and I'd love it if you would support it as well.
Hilarious. I love the way kids think sometimes.
(Go Obama!)
If we all got cotton candy for voting, I think more people would vote. Throw in a soda or some juice and you'd get a turnout in the 80% range for sure.
C'mon, they give you cookies or a pint of ice cream for donating blood. If it works for them...
Now that is a voting booth I would love to get in!
What a sentimental moment - remembering wandering in to that old brick schoolhouse on I think 83rd St. with kids in strollers so they could pull the little lever hickies and then the big one that opened the curtain. It's a great thing to do Liz - wonderful memories for both of you. Let's hope enough people pull the right one!
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