I Voted

I think today is an appropriate day to share a story about voting. Up until the 2008 presidential election, my parents had never voted in the US. Since there were no true democratic elections in the Soviet Union, I guess they didn't trust it, but I convinced them that the 3 of us should go vote together. I read up on the issues and on the candidates and made a mostly informed decision. Who knows what my parents did to prepare. The following is what ensued on voting day:

We wait in line to get to the booths and my dad goes ahead of me. He starts looking over the voting materials and realizes he has no idea what to do, as his English isn't that great. So he turns and looks for me in line and makes a motion for me to come over. I shake my head. He makes more agitated motions for me to come over and I shake my head harder. This happens a few more times and by that point we have attracted the attention of the volunteers, but my dad comes over and tries to get me to go with him anyway. I ask the poll workers if I am allowed to help him because he cannot read and they begrudgingly allow that. Thank goodness because we were causing a scene. My dad, mom, and I vote and we leave. 

On the way home I ask him why he voted against that one proposition that would force farms to have better animal health standards (or something like that, it was a long time ago!) and he said "Because the doctors on TV told me to." I remember those ads: people wearing white lab coats talking about voting down that proposition. He didn't even know it was about animals or anything! With people like my dad running around with the ability to vote, I'm concerned for this country.