Happy Election Day!

I’ve enjoyed Election Day since I was a kid, accompanying my parents into the voting booth, closing us behind that little curtain, and staring up at all the name and all the little levers and the one big red lever with a big handle. If I remember correctly, sometimes they even let me pull that handle to record their votes; it seemed magical: the machine would add their votes to the totals and at the same time, it would open up the curtain. Wow…technology. Even then, that machine felt like voting to me, like it was a part of something much larger. And then we’d go home and watch the results, and I’d know that I witnessed one of those thousands of votes that were tallied up and displayed as a total onscreen.

I still feel that way when I vote now. One of those votes that I see in the incoming returns is me. Along with the hundreds, thousands, or millions of people that felt the same way I did. I’m just a drop in the ocean, but together we stand for something, win or lose. And unlike when I was a child, I can feel like I’m actually contributing to real change.

Today will be the first time I’ve voted in New York State since 2012, and it’ll be the first time I haven’t voted absentee in the state ever. I know the big, imposing machines won’t be there, with their visceral clicks and their levers bearing the weight of democracy, but I can’t wait nonetheless. I’ve waited two years and marched plenty of miles to get to this ballot.