Rock the vote, don't mock the vote

When my 6-year-old son steps off the bus each afternoon, I always do the dad thing and ask him about his day. The answers are, as you can imagine, what one would expect from a boy of his worldly experience.

Our talk last Wednesday was different, though. It started out simply and typically enough, but quickly gained substance.

Dad: "How was your day, Jimmy?"

Boy: "Good."

Dad: "What did you learn today?"

Boy: "Nothing."

Dad: "Hmmm. I'll ask you again later and I bet you'll think of something. So what was the best part of your day?"

Boy: "Recess. It was so awesome."

Dad: "I love recess, too."

Boy: "Daddy, you're too old for recess."

Dad: "True. In fact, I'm so old I invented recess."

We both laughed, but I suddenly noticed something that drastically changed the nature of our post-school rap session. There was something on his shirt. Not a hornet or a chocolate milk smear or blue paint, mind you, but a sticker. Not just any sticker, though; this one had political implications.

It turns out my son rocked the vote MTV style — very cool, but in a Fisher Price generation sort of way.

On the left side of my son's shirt was a small circle that read, "I made freedom count. I voted."

When you think about it, kids and politics isn't such a foreign concept. After all, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin made the honor roll last quarter, didn't she?

Anyway, it turns out my son voted for Sen. John McCain, who you may have heard is Palin's running mate. Jimmy did this completely of his own accord, mind you. He has no idea who his parents will vote for next month, what our political preferences are or the fact that I don't believe President Bush understands that in a few months he won't be able to live in the White House anymore.

I'm thinking, OK, McCain's a war hero and little boys probably think that's pretty cool. That must be it. Or maybe he's familiar with McCain Potatoes out of Maine and figures if Johnny is voted in, there'll be extra tater tots for everybody.

Dad was wrong on both counts.

When I asked Jimmy why he voted for Sen. McCain, he said, "Because his name is easiest for me to read on all the signs. Obama's hard for me to say."

Damn, I love tater tots and we were so close! Nonetheless, this was a telling statement by my young political analyst for reasons unbeknownst to him.

It was telling because there are adults who will walk into a polling station having not done their homework and blindly vote for candidates. By not taking an interest in the candidates and learning about them, you're abusing your right to vote. Not voting, well, that's another story completely. That's saying you don't care who runs the country you live in.

As for voting blindly, it's a scary notion in a time when the political party lines are so much blurrier than in the past.

Some voters will check off names that they like or just check them off because of their party affiliation. They'll vote based on more trivial attributes, too.

I'm of Irish and Italian descent, so should I vote for names that look Irish and Italian? Of course not, but this kind of idiocy really goes on.

This is sort of like people who make football pool picks based on the mascots they like the best rather than knowing anything about the actual teams. That's fun and innocent, but nobody should take the same approach when they're in the voting booth. You just never know which mascots are frauds, regardless of which school they represent.

As for my son, as he gets older he'll be well trained in the ways of knowing the names on the ballot — and how to say them — before he walks in. But he voted in a way that was genuine and well-thought-out for a 6-year-old, so I'm proud of him.

His recent vote might not have counted, but it's still important because he and his classmates are learning about the importance of performing their civic duty and voting.

It might have been a mock election, but he definitely rocked the vote.

The adults who don't do their homework before walking into the polls? They're not rocking the vote — they're just mocking it.

Mike Sullivan is a Seacoast Sunday columnist. His column appears every week, and you can also read him each Monday in Portsmouth Herald Sports. Sullivan can be reached at sullywrites@comcast.net.