For those who aren’t planning to vote on Tuesday, just some food for thought: In 1996, as an election observer in Nicaragua, I witnessed and met numerous people with a profound appreciation of the right to vote. After decades of dictatorship, then civil war and political strife, while enduring poverty in the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Nicaraguans were eager to participate in free and fair elections to choose their political leaders. On election day some people walked for miles to get to polling places and wait in long lines under the hot sun. I recall one very elderly woman, allowed to the front of the line, walking very gradually in slow tiny steps with the help of a younger woman. This was a poor area and I know she must have walked there along the hilly dirt road, at her pace probably walking for hours. “Tu voto es secreto” was a phrase promoted in advertising and even printed on the cardboard voting booths (see pic), encouraging a feeling of security about voting among a people with recent memories of political violence and intimidation, and providing a socially-acceptable response if someone wishing not to reveal political preferences were asked. Many Nicaraguans I met walking around Managua, Leon, and some rural areas were quite willing to speak with me about their politics in the days before the election, but a few just smiled and said, “Mi voto es secreto.” Voter turnout was over 76%. Voters proudly displayed their thumbs with purple indelible ink evidencing that they had voted. Parents took their kids, who were allowed to mark their thumbs, too (see pics). After polls closed, volunteers at each polling station – representatives from many of the over 20 political parties on the ballot – worked through the night going through the ballots, holding up and announcing to all in the room every single ballot as it was recorded to ensure transparency and accuracy (see pic). Needless to say, I was very impressed with the Nicaraguan people’s appreciation for and dedication to the democratic process. While the probability that my vote will affect the outcome of a major election is practically infinitesimal, that’s not why I vote. I vote because I appreciate the opportunity, because I feel a civic duty, because I think our democracy is diminished when so many people don’t participate, and because the one thing my vote does decide is whether I’ll be among those who don’t vote or among those who do vote – part of the problem or part of the solution. I choose the latter. Hope you enjoy the pics. In addition to a few related to the elections and politics of those elections, I’m gratuitously posting pics of really nice kids I met there.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 21:24:04 +0000
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