Oxfam America Blog

University of Kansas students Zach Bealer and Christina Henning show off their (temporary!) Oxfam tattoos at a Kansas City climate change event. Photo: Liliana Rodriguez / Oxfam America

I went to college in the late 1990s, at the tail end of the decade of the slacker. Back then, you might have seen a few activists here and there on campus, but mostly we cultivated an aura of general apathy right down to the laces of our Doc Martens. It was okay to care vaguely about stuff like women’s rights or the environment, but it wasn’t necessarily cool to show too much enthusiasm. If you wanted to make a statement, you might scrawl something enigmatic on your t-shirt with magic marker, dye your hair pink, and leave it at that.
At risk of showing my age, I’ll just go ahead and say it: things have changed.

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Last night I took my place inside the booth, only partially hidden behind a frayed red, white, and blue curtain. Balancing my paper ballot on a wobbly, dented metal shelf, I carefully filled in the circles using a thick black marker. After I stepped out and slid the completed ballot into the machine (wondering the whole time if I was putting it in backwards) the woman working the polls handed me the emblematic sticker—“I voted today.”

And I wasn’t alone. According to Politico, more than 130 million Americans also cast their ballots yesterday—the most ever to vote in a presidential election.

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How do you feel today as you head to the polls? Energetic? Scared? Excited? Ambivalent?

The New York Times website created a page just for today where you can choose one word to describe your current state of mind (no login required). In case your moods are prone to shifting during the course of Election Day, you can update your choice every hour. And you can also see how others are feeling as the most popular words stream by on the page. (The top choice right now: passionate.)

As for me, I selected “anxious” from the list. I was out until late last night making get out the vote calls, at which time I would have said I was alternately frustrated and elated, depending on who was on the other end of the line. But since I woke up this morning I’ve felt only a deep restlessness, a constant uncertainty in the back of my mind. I think, no matter the outcome, I just want it to be over.

What about you?

Muthoni Muriu, director of Oxfam America’s overseas programs, talks about why the US presidential election matters to people around the world—especially those living in poverty:

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Sharon in action. Photo by Liliana Rodriguez / Oxfam America

Last week I talked to Sharon Hanshaw, executive director of Oxfam America partner Coastal Women for Change (CWC), about her group’s grassroots efforts to register voters in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Here’s Sharon on the importance of going door-to-door, the best thing to say when you’re holding a megaphone, and what inspired a 70-year-old woman to register for the first time:

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Oh and also: voter registration deadlines are fast approaching in most US states. If you haven’t registered yet—or if you know someone who needs to—go to www.headcount.org. This nonpartisan group offers voter links, helpful FAQs, and of course, a fast and easy registration form.