Voting as a family value

Every family has its traditions, and voting was certainly one of my family's.

Elections brought a sense of excitement, along with obligation and empowerment. My mom and dad planned their schedule for Election Day, figuring out if they'd vote first thing in the morning or at the end of the day. My dad would good-naturedly also make his perennial case for consensus -- he always hated the idea that his vote and his wife's vote would "cancel each other out." Sometimes it worked; sometimes it didn't, but it always made for good and civil dinnertime debate for us kids to hear.

Tonight my husband and I will work out logistics for tomorrow morning. This year our son will go to the poll with me -- just as I remember accompanying my dad -- and he and I will hear our friends the poll workers tell us my husband was one of the morning's first voters.

It's a 'campaign message' that I like a lot. Our children know my husband and I will be at the polls on every Election Day. We're passing on the privilege, and the sober civic responsibility, that our parents and grandparents instilled in us.

Do elections bring back family memories for you?