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."
Melanie Bell (00:00): My most interesting voting experience would be when I turned 18, went down to our local city hall and registered to vote. It was my first time being able to vote after turning 18. And, so actually it was for a president during that time, president Clinton. I was registered Democrat during that time. And the reason for that was both my parents were Democrats and they just told me, "This is what you go register as." And, so I did register as Democrat, so I got to work the polls that day.
(00:35): My grandmother had been a poll worker for 20 years, and they didn't have poll workers, had a shortage of them. And so she called me like two days before and said, "Would you be a poll worker?" So what's a poll worker? So I went down and it was the old timey polls. You step in, pull the curtain and you do the switch or whatever. And so got to learn a lot during that day of talking to people. "Why are you here? What is your passion for voting?"
(01:05): So that sparked my interest at that moment of why it's so important to vote to have a voice here, not just locally, but on the federal level. So when I got to vote the first time was probably the neatest thing for me.
Asset ID: 2022.37.12.b
