Advoken's Blog

I have voted in every Presidential election since 1952, a year when General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican, overwhelmed my choice, Democrat Adlai Stevenson of Illinois.  That means I have already cast my vote in 18 consecutive Presidential elections.

This year, I voted early, and I might say this vote affected my emotions more than any I have cast in the previous Presidential elections since I turned 21 (the legal voting age at the time).

My wife, Jean, and I were determined not to miss voting this time, so we went to one of nine “vote early” places in Milwaukee, choosing first the Tippecanoe Public Library Branch on the city’s Southeast Side, only to see a line stretching nearly a block long.  Hoping to find shorter lines, we ventured to the Mitchell Street library branch, happily finding a nearby parking spot and no line of voters outside.

That was a fooler, however.  The line was just as long stretching through the book racks inside the huge library branch which had been created out of the first floor of a former department store.  The library had thoughtfully placed chairs so that the elderly and disabled could find some comfort in the wait.  It was obvious we were in store for a long wait, and we took our place at the end of the line behind an older African American man with a cane, obviously walking in pain. 

The people standing in line in this urban branch library were a microcosm of the American population today.  The branch library is located on Mitchell Street, long a major neighborhood shopping street; some 60 years ago, the street was smack-dab amid a heavy population of Polish citizens, and it wasn’t rare to see store signs written in Polish and English.  Today, the same street is busy with stores serving a heavily Latino populations, along with various Asian peoples.  Virtually every store has signs in Spanish and English.

In a sense, the Mitchell Street neighborhood is like many similar areas in most American major cities today.  Our cities – indeed our whole nation – are becoming more and more diverse.

I heard nary a complaint from the 100-plus Milwaukeeans who were standing in line.  Perhaps because we were in a library, everyone talked in muffled tones, if they talked at all.  Old and young (it was heartening to see so many 20-somethings in line) Anglo, Hispanic, Pacific Islanders and Asian folks made up the line.

The young lady behind us yawned twice, and I kidded her: “Long night?”

“Yes, and am I paying for it?” she said.  “But this is my day off.”

I praised her for coming to vote, even though she was not feeling too energetic.  She said that she was not quite 30 and apologized for voting only twice before.  “I’m going to change that,” she promised.

Every so often we heard a large cheer arising out of the meeting room, where the voting was held.  Eventually, we got inside the meeting room to show our ID and to get our ballots, only to hear the cheer again, obviously coming from the poll workers.  “Another first-time voter,” a poll worker explained.

The enthusiastic cheering seemed to occur every several minutes, adding to the spirit of the room.  Hat’s off to the poll workers for developing a cheerful, positive feeling for all the voters.

While in line, we saw an elderly couple, most likely Hmong, emerging after voting.  They wore huge, satisfied smiles and you could sense the pride from the couple in knowing they were being given a voice in choosing the leaders of this country.

The fact that millions of American citizens are willing to take time out of their day to vote and stand in line for hours is testimony of the trust and belief that most of us have in the system.

How shameful is it that one of the Presidential candidates and his cohorts continue to sow distrust?  If he doesn’t win, he tells us the election will be stolen.  Nothing more undermines our democracy than this continual whining that the system is rigged.  There has been little evidence anywhere that fraud has affected election outcomes.  Our nation and its democratic system can only survive and thrive with the fullest participation of all our citizens – regardless of how they vote.

The dozens of citizens who stood  in line with us on Friday have invested in the system and they need to be assured that their trust is warranted.  The wanna-be dictator must not be rewarded.

It’s up to all of us to vote.  Take it from me: you’ll feel fulfilled after you have done it.  And, you’ll add one more voice to counter those who would say the system is rigged.  Ken Germanson, Nov. 2, 2024