Voting Stories

In celebration of Women’s Equality Day, the next few posts will be focused on women’s experiences voting. We’d love to hear your story as well. Why do you vote? What issues bring you to the polls? What was it like voting for the first time? Maybe you choose not to vote, why? Have you ever had trouble registering to vote? We want all the stories! Tell us your story here.

Peggy, age 98, Wisconsin

“My mother was a suffragette and spoke about the days before women could vote.  Her first vote was in the town of Conrad, Montana where she and her family homesteaded.  Then, when I turned 21 – that was when we were allowed to vote in those days – I voted in the 1940 elections in Minneapolis, MN.  How proud I was and how proud my father was when I entered the polling booth.  I do not recall the Spring elections but I do remember the presidential elections later that year.  I have voted in every single election since my first vote – often by absentee ballot after we retired and we started our retirement travel.  And, now, a woman is running for President.  How things have changed!”

Anonymous, age  90, Maine

“I was raised in a democratic family and was always told the democrats were for working people. I began voting at age 21 or 22 and was proud that I voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Kennedy. I stopped voting about 25 years ago. I don’t think my vote matters. I have had to work very hard and over the years I’ve had several jobs to support my family and I was in a physically and emotionally abusive relationship. I just did not have the time or energy to vote.”