Please don't stay on your couch...

By Joshua N. Weiss

As the election nears, I wanted to share a personal story about voting because I keep hearing that people may sit this one out. Back in the late 1990s I had my first overseas job as an election monitor in Bosnia after that horrible war. I worked for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to help ensure the election was as free and fair as it could be.

For a bit of context, you need to understand that the people of Yugoslavia had not had the freedom to vote openly. Any vote from 1945 on was a predetermined outcome and the people knew it.

I remember the day before the election, at my polling station, people started to show up. It was a crisp late afternoon with very little heat due to the destruction from the war. I told those that were lining up, through my interpreter, that voting would start in the morning and it was supposed to be quite cold that night so they may want to go home and come back in the morning. An elderly woman -- at the front of the queue -- summoned me and my translator over with a simple wave. When we got close she told me and my interpreter the following, “Oh I know it's starts tomorrow. But I've never voted freely in my life so I will wait. What is one night of cold to achieve a dream.” She smiled pulled her wool babushka tighter around her ears, crossed her arms to stay warm, and looked off into the distance. Within a few hours there was a good size line of people with the same perspective. We scrambled to find some blankets and other things to help keep people warm.

At dawn the next morning, the line had become very long, wrapping around the building and down the street as far as the eye could see. People would end up waiting many hours to cast their ballot, but they did not care because they had dreamed of the day when they would have a say in their future.

When the voting finally began I handed the old woman her ballot. She leaned into the interpreter and whispered ‘hvala ti’ which meant thank you, but then proceeded to say something to him quietly and in confidence. The two disappeared into the voting booth for a few minutes and my interpreter later reappeared. It turned out that the old woman could not read and needed his help to read the ballot to her so she knew which box to mark.

As the old woman started to walk out, a person stopped her to stamp her hand showing she had voted. She stared down at the stamp for what seemed like an eternity. She looked up, smiled a very big smile, put her gloves on and quietly walked away.

I share this story because we often take voting for granted and there are MANY people around the world who don't have this privilege. So please don't stay on your couch on Election Day...