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My First Voting Experience: Dylan Meader, Maryland

As told by Dylan Meader
Frostburg, Maryland

Story Narrative:

Dylan has a black knit cap on and headphones. He sits in front of a telescope and colorful painting.

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. 

Dylan Meader (00:00): My name is Dylan Meader. I live in Frostburg, Maryland. I was born in Maryland, so I've been here my whole life, but I was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, and then we moved to Allegany County and I've pretty much been around this area the whole time. And yeah, I go to the nearby high school, Mountain Ridge.

Dylan Meader (00:24): Yeah, so it was my first time doing it. I turned 18 on May 17th of last year. And the experience, it was actually really, really smooth. My parents and my oldest brother, we actually woke up pretty early. I think it was around like 6:30 AM, 7:00 AM, something like that. And there was voting booths set up inside of the school. We drove down to the school. It was actually really cold. And I was expecting the lines to be very short, so I didn't even bother taking a jacket, but it actually wasn't that bad. The lines, they were pretty short. Everybody had their masks on, and stuff like that.

Dylan Meader (01:14): But I'd say we got in the building within 10 minutes, I'd say. The line wasn't that bad. And I went inside, they asked who I was, stuff like that. Yeah. Then I got the sheets to fill out all of the candidates that I'm voting for, president, representatives and stuff like that and put it in the machine. And I got my I voted sticker and that's about it.

Dylan Meader (01:48): No, I actually haven't really been exposed to really the voting process whenever I was younger. I never rally went out to the polling areas with my family and stuff like that. And I never really paid attention to politics prior to this election, so with Trump administration the past four years. But I felt like it was worth paying more attention to it, since I was going to be actually voting in this election. Probably most people, whenever they turn 18 , they have the right to vote, so of course it's going to be very excited.

Dylan Meader (02:30): And I've been watching the rallies of all the candidates, including third party. So I've been paying attention more and especially paying attention at the debates and stuff like that. But it's been absolutely wild because I've been looking at previous presidential debates. They're so much more civil, but now I feel like they're more of a farce, per se. Especially with the presidential debate for this electing, between Trump and Biden. It's like they were constantly interrupting each other and stuff like that.

Dylan Meader (03:23): And even the moderator was interrupting them and it's like they could never get a clear answer out. And I just feel that the nation has been very divided. And it's very evident because more people actually did go out and vote. Even first time voters like me. More young people I'd say, are going out to vote more.


Asset ID: 2021.03.09.b
Themes: Voting, elections, debates, civil discourse, dialogue, civility, polarization, divided nation
Date recorded: January 29, 2021
Length of recording: 03:48 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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