Carolyn Anderson: Voting on the Farm, Iowa

Between December 2019 and January 2020 (just weeks before the pandemic), Smithsonian staff and their storytelling partners at the Peale, Baltimore, traveled to multiple states in the U.S. to ask residents of those states about voting experiences, the current state of American democracy, what issues brought them to the polls, how they made a difference in their communities, and what Americans' civic responsibilities were, among other complex questions.

Carolyn Anderson (00:02): I grew up on a farm in Iowa. I lived about a mile from the country school that my mother went to school at from her kindergarten years through eighth grade, and it had been abandoned for since she had left the eighth grade. That's where my family voted, so it was always fun because that building opened up once a year for voting.

(00:26): So, mom and dad couldn't leave the kids at home alone, so we'd all go, mom and dad would vote, we'd stand in line, talk with the neighbors. They all came from, oh, maybe a mile around because it was just a local voting place for us in Clarence, Iowa.

Asset ID: 2023.03.05.a-b
Themes: Voting, Elections, Family, Farming, Schools, Buildings, Architecture, Historic Preservation
Date recorded: October 16, 2019
Length of recording: 0:00:44
Related traveling exhibition: Voices and Votes: Democracy in America
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Main Street Iowa - Iowa Economic Development Authority
More information or related assets: https://www.thegazette.com/community/smithsonian-exhibit-launches-midwest-tour-of-voices-and-votes-democracy-in-america-in-cedar-rapid/