Issues That Brought Me to the Polls: Madison Kirkpatrick, Maryland

This snapshot was gathered in conjunction with the Maryland Voices initiative at Maryland Humanities, specifically to supplement the "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America" traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program. This collection, made up of stories of first-time voters between the ages of 18 and 24, showcases the experiences of young people as they wrestled with the 2020 presidential election, issues around social justice, the environment, immigration, and the pandemic.

Madison Kirkpatrick (00:01): Okay. I'm Madison Kirkpatrick. I'm 18 years old and I go to Allegheny College of Maryland here in Cumberland, Maryland.

Madison Kirkpatrick (00:08): So, this year was my first year voting, actually. I felt that this was one of the most important elections and definitely a very different one to be your first time voting in. I felt that it was very, very important because a lot of really serious, really important issues were at stake here. And I actually experienced getting diagnosed with COVID-19, and it really went through my family and my town really hard. It's definitely something that definitely needed to be handled. And I felt that voting was very, very important.

Madison Kirkpatrick (00:46): Other issues: We all had different opinions, but we all came together and kind of decided which, or what we really felt we believed in and what was best. So other issues were probably like women's rights and gun violence and stuff like that.

Asset ID: 2021.03.12.g
Themes: Voting, issues, COVID-19, women's rights, guns, gun violence, family
Date recorded: January 29, 2021
Length of recording: 01:05 m
Related traveling exhibition: Voices and Votes: Democracy in America
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Allegany Museum, in partnership with Maryland Humanities
More information: https://www.mdhumanities.org/programs/museum-on-main-street/2021-2022-tour/