#ElectionDay2022 with GenX & GenZ

How do a Gen X mom and a Gen Z kid are spend their first election day far apart? We’ll show you…

This is the first year my kiddo has lived away from home. Teen advocate Yara is now a freshman at Johns Hopkins University, which makes me proud. But I’m also proud they’re spending Election Day with the Sunrise Movement up at my old campus at the University of Wisconsin - Madison to mobilize students there. I’m still here in St. Louis where Yara graduated high school from last spring. We’re both doing our best to keep up the election momentum and do everything we can for our issues on Election Day. This is what it looks like based on our texts to each other through the morning. 

MOM: I started the morning early dropping campaign signs off at several polling locations around University City. A great use of my newly repaired Subaru. It was very heartening to see lines already going out the door and wrapping around buildings! I was a little sad I couldn't convince any friends to come out and about with me at sunrise, but that meant I got to listen to Weird Al Yankovic really loudly as I drove.

Image: Cindy with campaign signs by the car

YARA: "Hey, do you want a Hot Girls vote sticker?" is my favorite tactic to get people to text their friends right after they leave the polls. These stickers are even more popular than candy!

Image: Hot Girls Vote sticker with 
a code to scan for the Sunrise Movement

MOM: I have to admit that phone banking is not my favorite type of election work, but I gave it a go today. I reached a few people, but the best part was talking to text bankers Marge and Julie and eating donuts. And then our Senate candidate Trudy Busch Valentine showed up! Always fun to spend time with the person you're volunteering for. I ended up politely taking my leave saying, "I may be your worst phone banker, but I'm going to my next shift where I'll be the best poll greeter!"

Image: Cindy and other volutneers with candidate
Trudy Busch Valentine

YARA: Sunrise Movement is hanging out by polling places at UW-Madison, spreading the word about our favorite thing - VOTE TRIPLING! When people come out of the voting booth, they feel really good, and if they text three friends in that exact moment, data shows that it's super effective in turning people out. Like, "Oh shoot, Emily's out there right now! When am I gonna do it?"

Image: Yara on a campus mall with clipboard and stickers

MOM: I'm off to my poll greeting shift now. This picture is a cheat because I haven't yet done it, but this is what poll greeting looks like! I took a picture with these nice poll volunteers this morning while I was putting up signs. I had no idea they were Trudy Busch Valentine's kids until she tweeted it out with a note that her children were helping. I'd like to be clear that I'm in no way related to the Busch nor Valentine family, but I would like her to be my senator.

Image: Tweet from candidate Trudy Busch Valentine
about her poll greeting kids with Cindy in a picture with them

EVENING UPDATE.....

MOM: Here is what poll greeting really looked like for me. Lots of smiles for my "Votes for Women" Mickey Mouse ears. One young voter came to the polls and just wanted to know who was for better health care. I loaded him up with literature my candidates at all levels of his ballot and he even got to talk to some candidates. I marvelled that there are still people who rely on those personal poll greeter interactions for their decisions. Most mid-term voters, like me, arrive with a sample ballot pre-filled out. 

Image: Cindy with another volunteer and Missouri 
State Representative candidate Melissa Greenstein

YARA: After canvassing across from UW Memorial Union, we moved over to another polling location. Mom loved my picture in front of the iconic Bascom hill that she used to sled down with her best friend on cafeteria trays in the winter. (MOM: I never could have imagined in 1992 that this photo would happen in 2022)

Image: Yara holding a clipboard in front of big
letters on Bascom Hill that say "BADGERS VOTE"

!!!UPDATE!!!

CNN says, "Dane County, WI is reporting huge turnout with long lines & calls to bring in extra poll workers. The turnout from the campus is tremendous." Could it be because Yara and the Sunrise Movement are out vote tripling? Why, I do believe so!

Image: Book cover

Buy an autographed copy of "From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Advocates and How to Get Started" at my website www.changyit.com or order it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any independent bookstore!