A New York (and Hungarian) Voting Story

Last Saturday, I was on my way to the mailroom in my New York City apartment building, when I chanced upon an 89-year-old fellow resident I’ve come to know during our elevator rides. 

She was cooling her heels in an upholstered chair in our lobby and sporting, like I was, an “I voted early!” sticker on her jacket. I stopped to say hello, then congratulated her on exercising her right to cast her ballot before Election Day, thereby avoiding the lines. As often happens in New York City, this random encounter brought forth a story, one that moved me, especially before a consequential midterm election. 

I’ll relay it in my neighbor’s words, in the hopes that it moves you, too:

I always vote early – and so does my daughter. Whenever and wherever she moves, the first thing she does is register to vote. She’s passionate about it. People like to give me credit for instilling that in her but the truth is, it has nothing to do with me. 

When she was in high school, she happened to spend time in Hungary living with a host family, right when Hungarians were participating in their first free election since the Communist Party takeover at the end of 1945. 

Her host mother was voting in a free election for the very first time and that made a huge impression on my daughter. She still likes to tell the story of how she asked, “What if you vote for the wrong person?” And the woman replied, as if she’d been voting all her life, “Well, then we’ll just vote them out the next time!” 

My father always used to say, ‘Not everything is perfect in this country. There are bad things, but when you travel to other places, you often get the opportunity to appreciate the good things.’ And that’s what happened with my daughter. She was struck by this host family voting for the first time, which made her appreciate her own right to vote even more.

As I sit on tenterhooks waiting for today’s midterm results, I’ll be thinking of my neighbor, and her daughter, and that Hungarian host mother, and all the women who have stories to share of exercising their rights, if we only pause to listen.