Day 8, Kay: Time to Vote

How many of you remember the first time you ever voted?

We all do. The likelihood is that if you’re reading this blog you’re a voter.

My first time to vote was in 1978. My parents had never voted. They were passionate about politics and felt rescued from the ravages of the Depression by FDR, but had never voted. They had a variety of reasons not to vote, but I think they simply felt intimidated by the process.

When they were in their sixties and I was in my twenties, I helped them to register to vote, and I think they took some pride in being regular voters after that. The last vote my mother cast was in 2008 when the county clerk brought the ballot to the car, and she voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary.

But thirty years earlier I had steered my ’72 Vega across John Ben Shepperd Parkway in Odessa and entered the gymnasium of an all but empty elementary school. It had taken quite a bit of effort to register as a college student to be able to vote in a town that wasn’t my own, but I was committed.

With great pride I plunged into the prospect and cast my ballot for John Hill for governor, and the electronic ballot punched William P. Clements for governor. I could not convince the poll worker that my ballot had been cast wrong. She assured me it was right. Was it? I’ll never know. But my guy didn’t win.

On today’s Election Day I will have to make myself vote. Frankly, I’ve lost my stomach for it. Money, zealots, and cynics have hijacked a process I used to respect. One party controls Texas, and other choices and voices seldom have a chance.

However, the only way Texas will ever have two viable parties is for everyone to vote. The only path for the process to be credible is for everyone to vote. One of the reasons why extremists who talk about secession with a straight face have a platform is that off-year elections have such abysmal turnout.

Take back Texas. Vote.