As Americans across the country voted early in record numbers ahead of Tuesday’s election, it has become clear that they are motivated, arguably like never before.
Some voters are now sharing intimate explanations for what drove them to the polls, posting online that their vote was dedicated to someone else, usually a child or grandchild unable to exercise that right.
The sentiment crosses political lines, with supporters of both Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump sharing tributes to their loved ones online after voting.
“I dropped by ballot in the mailbox today. It was my signature on the form. But it was my daughter’s vote I placed inside the envelope,” wrote David Frum on X (formerly known as Twitter) last week. Frum’s daughter Miranda died earlier this year at the age of 32.
Frum, a staff writer for The Atlantic and former speech writer for President George W. Bush, told NBC News that Miranda “would have cared very much about abortion rights,” both the right to have an abortion and “the right not to be surveilled.”
“I know how she would have felt about all of that, and how upset she would have been, and how determined she would have been to make her voice heard. Since she can’t make her voice heard herself, I have to use my voice,” he said.
The post received some 30,000 likes and a flurry of responses from others who said they, too, were casting their votes for loved ones this year.
Audra Worlow, who has a 2-year-old daughter and lives in Broadview Heights, Ohio, wrote in a post on X to her more than 15,000 followers that she was “voting for my daughter’s locker rooms, bathrooms and sports teams.”
“Her freedom to exist in public without fear of where to use a restroom is on the ballot,” Worlow wrote on X.
She told NBC News that she had voted Democrat for many years before switching parties during the pandemic and will vote for Trump this year.
“Both parties seem to want to take people in an entirely different direction,” said Worlow, 33.
“It’s just a constant fight to just have single sex spaces again. Single sex spaces are a very important issue for me, personally, for my daughter,” she said, adding that she has concerns about sending her daughter to public school when she gets older.
“I see it as a serious safety issue,” she said.
Other issues she said are motivating her decision to vote for her daughter’s future are inflation and the price of groceries as well as her stance against mandatory vaccination policies during the Covid pandemic.
Despite their more personal nature, the vote dedications often mirror the top issues voters across the country have said they are concerned about, including reproductive rights and the economy.
Cheryl Mooney, a Democrat and mother of three in Hendersonville, Tennessee, wrote in a post on X last week that she was casting her ballot for her LGBTQ daughter who is too young to vote in this election and for her children’s reproductive rights.
Mooney, 52, said she has been a “strong Democrat for years” and has always cared about women’s reproductive freedom and LGBTQ rights, “especially when my 15-year-old daughter came out as being a lesbian” more than a year ago.
“I’m terrified that my daughter may not have the right to marry someone someday. It’s heartbreaking,” she said.
Mark Lyon, a Republican grandfather of six from Port Jefferson, Long Island, in New York, said he was voting for Trump this year for “my son, my daughters, and my grandchildren.”
“I want them to be able to be free and to be able to make their own decisions without the government interfering,” Lyon, 73, said, naming immigration and law and order as top issues.
“These people that are in charge now, they have a whole different look about what the world should be,” he said.
Jon Cooper, a Democratic social media influencer and former legislator in Suffolk County, Long Island, said in a post on X last week that he had voted for Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other Democrats down the ballot.
“I chose freedom, decency and democracy — along with a bright, just and prosperous future for my five children and future grandchildren,” he wrote.
Cooper said this week that when he cast his vote for Harris last week, he “was doing so in large part to show my commitment to their well being, and more importantly, to a vision of a better world for future generations.”
“For me, at least, that means prioritizing values and policies that will shape their lives, and whether that’s protecting reproductive freedom or fighting against climate change or as many people feel, ensuring the survival of our democracy,” said Cooper, 69. “It’s about creating a society where they can thrive and enjoy the freedoms and opportunities that have always defined the American dream.”
He added that he has also seen and heard many others say that they will be dedicating their votes this year to their future generations.
“It’s a constant refrain,” he said.
“My vote and the vote of so many others, it was not just for the present, but it was also an investment in the future, and it was about honoring the responsibility that I think we all share, to pass on a world that’s safe and fair and just and that will allow my children and future grandchildren to live up to their full potential,” he said.
