The Thrill of Voting

On election day, I headed down to Democratic Headquarters here in Marshalltown to volunteer as soon as I got out of work. I made some phone calls and went canvassing to make sure everybody made it out to vote and all of the absentee ballots were turned in.

At 8:40, I was eagerly awaiting the polls to close at 9:00 when a Hispanic man walked into Democratic Headquarters and said that he was there to vote. We got his address and looked up his polling location. He told us that he was not registered, so we made sure he had the proper identification.

We then hurried out to the car with 12 minutes to get across town. On the car ride there he told me that he works in Des Moines and drove 85 mph to get back to Marshalltown in time to vote. We walked into his polling location at 8:56.

He had a driver's liscence with his current address on it, so he was able to register at the polls. The pollworker was very nice and helped him fill it out. As he was filling out the paperwork, he told her that he had just gotten his citizenship on September 24th and couldn't wait to vote. He grabbed his ballot and stepped into the voting for the first time.

When I dropped him off at his car, he told me that he had something to show me. He reached in the back of his car and grabbed an envelope. He pulled out his citizenship papers and said with a big smile on his face, "I got to vote!"