This snapshot was gathered in conjunction with the Museum on Main Street program at the Smithsonian Institution and its "Stories from Main Street" initiative. The project is intended to capture Americans' impressions and stories about their small-town and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, and thoughts about American democracy. This story is from a group of narratives inspired by the Smithsonian traveling exhibition, "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America."
Jillian Hartley (00:00): I'm Jillian Hartley, and my first voting experience was in a small town in the Missouri Bootheel. And so I was somebody raised in a very political family and I was very excited about getting to vote. And so I had registered to vote just a few days after I turned 18. And so when I went to the voting booth, it was a very small place, and when I went in, it was a primary and I actually asked for a ballot from a political party. They had not taken the ballots out of the plastic for that party yet, but they actually had a stack of the other party, a big, huge stack just ready to hand out. And so when I asked for the other ballot, they said, "Oh, nobody ever asks for that." And then they actually opened up the package and they handed me the paper ballot. So then I went into the little booth and I pulled the curtain behind me, and while I was in the booth filling out the ballot, I could hear the poll workers saying, "Well, you know, her dad votes that way too."
(00:56): I was from California originally, and so we were kind of considered to be transplants in the area, but they went on to say, "Yeah, and I think a few others of her family vote that way too." So when I came out and I kind of handed my ballot and I walked out, it was my first experience voting and it was not what I had expected, needless to say.
(01:19) I choose to vote and I have never missed a presidential election, and I try not to miss any kind of midterm election and even local elections because I was raised in a very political household. I was the type of person who, when I was a child, my father was engaging me in political conversations and talking politics. And then I went on to major in history. And one of the things that always stood out to me was the fact that it took a very long time for certain groups in this country to gain the right to vote. And so to me, it's just something a responsible citizen should do and take seriously.
(01:53): It really is the most important element in a democracy for us to be able to choose the people who govern us and to also hold them accountable. When I look at the younger generations, really the millennials and Gen Z, I think that there are a lot of issues weighing on them, and one of the things that worries me is that they don't seem to be as active in the political processes they probably should be, and there have to be reasons for that. I think it's the responsibility of people from other generations to explain to them and show them why it's important to be a part of the political process, because they have a lot of issues they're worried about. They're worried about what the environment is going to be like. They're worried about population growth, overpopulation, the depletion of resources. These are things that seem to be a big part or be a source of anxiety for them. At the same time too, I worry that they don't know how much they can do to change the political process and to make those things more of a priority.
Asset ID: 2023.02.06.c-d
