Democracy in action

Griffin's homework assignment for tonight was to go vote with one of his parents. 

So after I picked him up from school, we drove to the little church that serves as our polling place. He grabbed my hand as we walked through the parking lot, and I said, "Do you know what voting is?"

"Yes," Biscuit said. "It's when you choose something you like. Sometimes we vote on things in my class."

"The voting we'll do today is to choose leaders for our city and state," I told him. "Now when we go inside, you have to be really quiet, okay?"

"Okay, got it," Biscuit said.

There were two people in front of us, so it wasn't a long wait at all. We got my name checked off and got in line to wait for a machine.

The poll worker came over and got the machine set up. I pulled out my cheat sheet and started marking names.

All of a sudden, Biscuit said (in a voice that was WAY too loud for a voting place), "Hey, Mom! I can read that name! You voted for ***!" And he yelled out the name of the candidate I voted for. 

That's when I did some of that whisper yelling. "Shhhh! You don't say that out loud. You don't yell out candidates names at the polling place."

Of course he didn't understand the problem. So I just said, "Just don't talk until we get outside, okay?"

"Okay," Biscuit said. And I could tell that his feelings were hurt.

As we walked outside, we had a talk about being quiet while we vote. 

"I'm sorry, Mom," Biscuit said. And I explained to him that I wasn't mad.

"It's okay," I told Biscuit. "You didn't know. I'm not mad. I promise."

We talked some more about why you should vote, and then the subject was changed to what's for dinner.

Biscuit cast his vote for pizza, as usual. And I overruled him. I guess that shows that democracy isn't fool-proof!