This blustery day isn't keeping people from the polls on Lenlock Lane. At about 8:40 there were 61 ballots counted. This is more than the total number of voters for the runoffs a couple of months ago, I was told by a worker. There was a steady stream of voters, coming in singly or in pairs.
The poll workers are happy to be working. They take it as a civic duty to help others be able to vote. None of the four workers liked the trend of young people not voting. One man thinks it is because that sense of duty has not been instilled in them.
These workers believe that voting is a huge responsibilty of the people. They say that only people who vote have a right to complain about the government. One worker said he would bet a dollar to a hole in a doughnut that most of the people that complain haven't voted.
A little tidbit of information for Election Day: Garrison Keillor on the Writer's Almanac told me that for the first 50 years of the United States' history, only about 15 percent of the adult population was eligible to vote. This was mainly white, property owning men. Now the only people ineligible to vote are felons.
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Felons can petition to have their voting rights restored, and many convicted of crimes have run for office. A joke several years ago had it that the state of Louisiana would have no gubernatorial candidates if only law-abiding citizens sought that office.
Voting fun fact to know and share: Wyoming in 1869 was the first state to give women aged 21 and older the right to vote. The first woman to cast a ballot in that state did so in the 1870 election. That led the way to women serving on juries in Wyoming in 1871.
Other women's suffrage trivia: The theme of women's voting rights played prominently in the movie Mary Poppins, with the character Winifrid Banks being a major supporter of "Votes for Women."
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