My Very First Ballot

Christian Garduno

November 2, 2020

When I turned eighteen, I signed up for Selective Service and I registered to vote. At the time, wars and strange things like famine were events that occurred in very distant, hard-to-pronounce regions. Suffice, to say, the country was in a pretty good place. The economy was humming along, and nobody was trying too hard to rock the boat.

At the time, I lived in a state that was very decidedly “a certain color.” Been that way for a while, probably always going to be that way. The way I looked at it was with this funky Electoral College business, only states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida really get to decide for the whole of us. It seems like it always boils down to those states every four years.

My friend and I drove down to the voting station where some very helpful senior citizens explained the process and guided us toward THE VOTING BOOTH. With our youthful enthusiasm and a bit of glee, we took our ballots to task. The municipal section was completely confusing: tax percentages, bonds for this, referendums on that. I basically left all of that stuff alone. I turned to the General Election for President of the United States portion. For the first time in my life, I voted.

The same senior crew congratulated us with a sticker for partaking in the greatest democracy in the world. On the way home, my friend asked me who I voted for. I said, “You’re not supposed to ask, are you?” She said, “I think you can say if you want.”

“I wrote-in for Leonard Peltier.” She asked why on Earth I would ever do that, basically throw away my vote. I told her, “Maybe it is a throw-away vote, but so was yours if our state is already decided. It was decided generations ago. With my freedom, I voted for a man I believe deserves freedom. Let them decide the President in Akron.”

Leonard Peltier’s next scheduled parole hearing is in 2024.

Christian Garduno’s work can be read in over 40 literary magazines, including Riza Press, where his poem, “The Return,” was a Finalist in their 2019 Multimedia Art Contest. He lives and writes in South Texas with his wonderful Nahemie and young son Dylan