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My First-Time Voting Experience: Delanie Blubaugh, Maryland

As told by Delanie Blubaugh
Frostburg, Maryland

Story Narrative:

Delanie has long, wavy brown hair and wears a white tank top. She sits in front of a window with white curtains.

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. 

Delanie Blubaugh (00:00): Okay. My name is Delaney Bluebaugh. I am a junior political science and legal studies double major at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland. So all the way up in the mountains in western Maryland. So I'm a student leader on Frostburg State's campus. And so this semester, with the election cycle and everything, I was actively engaged with our Office of Civic Engagement and the Civic Engagement Committee to ensure that students at Frostburg State were able to get to and from the polling place and had all the information they needed to cast their ballot and to participate civically.

Delanie Blubaugh (00:34): And so when election day came up, stakes were high. We felt the high energy even in the cold, western Maryland that we live in and in the middle of the pandemic a lot of students and people and community members were really excited to cast their ballot and to take part in such a pivotal election.

Delanie Blubaugh (00:54): And so I actually cast my ballot via mail-in ballot. And so I'm taking mine and my mom's mail-in ballots with her to the ballot drop box and we're taking selfies and we're so excited because this is my first presidential election. It felt so monumental. And so it was so exciting and I was so excited to just partake in this incredible opportunity that we have as Americans. My voice was going to be heard all the way in western Maryland for this presidential election and so I was still excited.

Delanie Blubaugh (01:30): And I think just being able to, when I was driving through Frostburg that day, seeing the FSU vans taking students to and from campus to our polling place and everything, I think that kind of still just made me so excited for what the day was. I was decked out in my I'm voting gear and everything just to show the students that I was seeing on campus that I was partaking civically and they should too.

Delanie Blubaugh (01:53): So it felt a little different, definitely a lot different than it did in 2018, but it was so rewarding because I could see that the work that me and my colleagues were doing leading up to the election was really paying off since so many students were going to the polling place.


Asset ID: 2021.03.08.d
Themes: Voting, elections, politics, college, youth, Gen Z, volunteering, civic engagement, president
Date recorded: January 29, 2021
Length of recording: 02:10 m
Related traveling exhibition: Voices and Votes: Democracy in America
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Allegany Museum, in partnership with Maryland Humanities
More informationhttps://www.mdhumanities.org/programs/museum-on-main-street/2021-2022-tour/

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