Share Your Voting Story
Do you have a personal or family story about voting? A great-grandma or aunt who was in the suffrage movement? Your first time voting or the first time you went with a family member as they voted? A parent or uncle who voted for the first time? Something fun or heart-warming that happened while you were voting? Something unfair or unpleasant that happened? A time when you or a friend or family member stood up for what is right?
We’d love to hear your stories. You can share video, word or Google docs, photos or audio files.
Quick Storytelling Tips from YpsiWrites
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Personal memories like these should both tell your own story and have a point to make with a larger audience. What is the reason for sharing this story? To whom might it be most meaningful? What would be important for your audience to read/hear? What does it say about the importance of voting?
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Details are important in stories like these. Think about sensory details: What did the experience look like? Who else was there? What were the sounds? Were there tactile details (liking touching voting levers? Filling in bubbles?)
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Final sentences are important in stories like these; they’re your chance to make your point or help the reader/listener understand your message. Think carefully about how you want to end this memory.
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If you’re recording a video, don’t be afraid to bring your passion and energy to the screen. Words can create an image but so can your retelling of the moment: your voice, your hand gestures, your facial expressions.
Thank You Grandpa
BY MARIE SAMIDA The greatest gift we can bestow on others is a good example. As a child in the mid-thirties, I lived in a three-generation household with my grandparents in a rural area near a small mid-Michigan village (no larger today than it was 80 years ago). So...
A Tale of One Suffragette
BY DAVE FRENCH My Mother, Donalda Roy, was born in the last month of the 1800s, the eldest child of nine. Her parents were French Canadians, who came to the US from Quebec in the 1870s. She graduated from high school in 1917, and entered Boston University as a member...
Raising a Voter
BY PAULA DRUMMOND When my son was young, he watched what his parents did, as most children do. My husband and I have always paid attention to what goes on around us, and avidly follow election coverage; so it was that our son became interested in elections at a...
Your Vote Counts, and How I Learned the Hard Way (audio)
BY ARIEL WAN, Age 39
Work That Matters
BY NANCY SCHEWE I always refer to my volunteer work as my work—plain and simple— because I am fully committed to its importance. It holds as much priority in my life as any paying job I ever had. My work registering voters, observing elections, and organizing public...
“No, You May Not.”
BY LINDA JEFFRIES I grew up in central Pennsylvania and at seventeen, moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to go to college. The fall of my sophomore year was 1976 and I was thrilled to be voting for the first time, especially since it was a presidential election as...