I VOTED SATURDAY!!! by Ne Ko'da Carter-West (rm book recommendations txt) 📕

November 3, 2012 my brother Gregg, my brother Shomari and I got up and went downtown with my mom. She said she was going to vote.
At first, my brother Shomari said he didn’t want to go and I just wanted to go back to sleep and STAY sleep because it was Saturday. After all, my brothers and I thought November 6th was SUPER TUESDAY, ELECTION DAY, the day to vote for president.
When my mom woke us up, she made us hurry and get ready. After getting ready, we rushed to the car but my brother Gregg said he couldn’t find his voter registration card. Mom wasn’t really happy and yelled for him to check the coffee table. I think she forgot that she gave it to me to give to him after I got ready. So, we yelled for Gregg to come on because we had it, and he came running.

On our way downtown, my mom explained to us that November 6th is actual Election Day, and that we were right. However, the polls were opened up to voters on Friday November 2nd so people could vote early if they wanted to. She said this helps the election committee, the people who are helping you vote, stay organized and helps to keep the lines from getting too long on the day of the election. Also, she said by not waiting until the last minute makes it easier to keep things in order.
My mother explained to us that there are so many reasons why people would be interested in voting early. In fact, she said she went early because she wanted to make it a family outing. Therefore, going to vote on Saturday allowed her to make casting her vote a family experience, without making my brother Shomari and I from miss any school on Tuesday.

When we got downtown, we went to the county courthouse building. We saw signs outside of the front door that said ‘VOTE HERE’ in red white and blue, the same colors of the American Flag, with arrows pointing to the front door.
There weren’t many cars outside when we parked, but when we got inside there were lots of people inside, and everywhere I looked there were little booths set up. Some of these booths were set up for a person to sit down and vote, and the other booths were set up for people to stand up while voting.  These little booths looked like they were made out of cardboard.
I wanted to start asking questions but my mom seemed really focused with a serious look on her face…, so, I just walked and looked. There were no other children there.

We came to a door that said ELECTION BOARD. The door was opened and there was no one in line ahead of us, but there were lots of green papers lined up across the counter.
A lady walked up and handed my mom one of the green sheets and explained to her that when she filled out the paper to bring it back to the counter with her i.d. and she would find my mom in the computer. Another lady asked Shomari if he was voting, but he said no, then she asked Gregg. He was voting too, so she gave Gregg a green sheet also and gave him the same instructions that the other lady had given my mom.
Mom filled hers out with her name address and phone number, then gave it to a lady name Debbie, along with her i.d.
Ms. Debbie took my mothers’ green form and drivers’ license to the computer but said she was having a hard time finding my mom. This did NOT make my mom happy at all. BUT they worked together with a couple of more workers to locate my mom in the system. Now FINALLY, they gave her a ballot with a little sticker label on the ballot that had her name on it.
We then moved over to a table where two older ladies were sitting, one was our neighbor Ms. Billie. My mom handed her ballot to Ms. Billie, who yelled out ‘She’s a 2’ after looking over my moms’ ballot. Then Ms. Billie gave my mom a clipboard and had her to sign in. After my mom signed in, Ms. Billie gave us little oval stickers that had an American Flag on them and read I VOTED!

I followed mom out of the door. She took her ballot to a booth where you stand up and my brother Gregg was at a booth where you sit. It’s funny because even though he was in line behind mom, because he had his voter registration card and she didn’t, he beat mom getting through the line. Ms. Debbie said it’s because you vote with an i.d. number, and this number is found on the voter registration card and not on your i.d.
Once we got to the booth, mom showed me what the ballot looked like and began explaining to me in a very soft voice, sometimes even a whisper, how to vote. She even let me put a check mark in some of her boxes.
The ballot looked a lot like a reading test to me.

The very first question was for President. You had to choose whether you wanted a democratic or republican president.
My mom started showing me names that I remembered from the signs I’d seen around town, like Obama, Biden, Romney and Ryan. I even saw words that I recognized from signs AND listening to the news and commercials too. Words like state representatives, Supreme Court and other words. Then Shomari came over to our booth from Gregg’s booth to ask mom about a symbol.
He said “Mom, I thought the democratic symbol was a donkey and the republican symbol was an elephant?”
Mom said “Yes.”
Then Shomari pointed out that the symbols on our Oklahoma ballots were an eagle for republican and what looked like a rooster for democrats. Mom said she hadn’t even noticed and went on to explain how important it is to pay attention, to be studious and read to keep up in life because things are always changing. Shomari just listened and didn’t say anything.

My mom turned her ballot over once we finished with the first side where we voted for the President, state representatives and judges. The first page was actually kind of easy but the back page mom said required more reading. Even though to me, the back looked easy because all of the answers were either yes or no, either for the proposal or not for the proposal.
Mom explained that you have to understand what you are voting for because you can vote for something that makes life harder for you when you don’t read with an understanding. She also said, sometimes, making mistakes when you vote can even make things harder for your children and grandchildren. Then she explained again how important it is to use the internet, newspapers and televisions to keep up with the news because the President, the state representatives and judges are always