On Saturday, as I waited in line on the last day of early voting in North Carolina, one first-time voter stuck out to me.
She appeared to be a student at Duke University. I didn’t catch her name. Her ankle was wrapped in tape. After waiting 45 minutes or more at an early voting site in Durham, she came out looking demoralized.
A volunteer who’d been passing out water bottles and chips swooped in. The student had hoped to take advantage of early voting’s same-day registration, but she’d been turned away because she was missing proof of residence.
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She looked like she was about to cry.
As the line grew, the volunteer told her to go home and bring proof of residence back. Same-day registration was available for another five or six hours. “It’s worth it,” she told her.
After I voted, I saw the student again. She had returned. She was waiting in line.
As we head into Election Day in North Carolina, I keep thinking about that student. She couldn’t have been more than 18 or 19, and she was one of many first-time voters I saw that day.
It was a beautiful fall afternoon. Halloween was that evening—one of the best nights of the year to be a college student.
“I hope that people have the same tenacity as that first-time voter I saw Saturday. I fear too many will be like the guy I sold some furniture to on Facebook Marketplace, the guy who casually mentioned that he’s never voted because it all makes him feel disgusted.”
And they were spending an hour or more of their Saturday doing exactly what we’ve asked of them: voting in a midterm election that, obviously, has many North Carolinians eager to vote.
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Don’t tell me civic duty is dead.
Stories like that are restoring, redemptive even. We’re supposed to be a dull-eyed pack, too cynical to care, but we are more complicated than that.
Why are North Carolina voters so fired up
There’s the personal and the political and not much difference between the two. This year, it seems, the political is deeply personal.
For many folks, it struck a chord seeing families—even children—terrorized by ICE. It enraged them to see the president’s family use the highest office in the land to grow richer while so many people struggled. To watch the rights of women and LGBTQ people, particularly trans people, bandied about so callously. To, once again, see the South’s Black voting districts abused; to feel lied to about artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, and wars.
“Your participation, your interest, is the single greatest cure for what ails us as a country.”
People have their own reasons for feeling fired up this election season. All of them deserve our respect.
You can see it in the numbers.
On the eve of Election Day, more than 2.8 million North Carolinians have already voted, either by taking advantage of early in-person voting or voting by mail. That’s more than 35% of the state’s registered voters.
For everyone else, Tuesday is the last chance. Polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. If you’re in line by 7:30, you can still vote. Find your Election Day polling place.
I don’t know how things will turn out. I was only in that booth with myself. The same goes for all the pundits making overheated predictions right now.
I hope that people have the same tenacity as that first-time voter I saw Saturday. I fear too many will be like the guy I sold some furniture to on Facebook Marketplace, the guy who casually mentioned that he’s never voted because it all makes him feel disgusted.
On Tuesday, we can only watch and wait and trust that, when we vote, it matters.
I don’t believe that American voters will always make the right choice, that they’ll support leaders who are fair and honest, with good intentions for our country. We’ve made the wrong choice many times before.
But I do believe in the sanctity of that choice. And for the first time in my life, I don’t think most of the folks in power right now share that belief.
These people prey on our indifference and disgust. They want us to feel like there’s no point in participating, that it’s all a stupid game.
Games might be played. But their consequences are very serious. Take them seriously. And know that your participation, your interest, is the single greatest cure for what ails us as a country.
I keep thinking about that student in Durham. I hope she stayed in line. I hope she had what she needed to register. I hope that, for the first time in her life, she voted.
But most of all, when the results are in, I hope she feels like it was worth it.
