by Daniel Anderson,Tansem Township
Today I voted NO twice at 7:30 a.m.at the Tansem Township Townhall, built in 1874.
My great-grandparents on both sides of my family emigrated from Norway and homesteaded in this township. I will be fourth generation of my family voting, literally, in the footsteps of my ancestors. The tables, the chairs, the wainscoting ... all original.
No voter ID issue here. I walk in and the judges look at me and say, " Oh, you're Eddie and Bernice's boy." I remember my mother telling me the story of how her dad took her there to vote in her first election.
I wonder how my grandmothers and great-grandmothers felt when they voted for the first time in 1920? Did the men sit and stare? DId their husbands drive them to the townhall to vote?
How bold they must have felt to step forward for justice, as we will today.
Photo: Tansem Town Hall, Clay County, Minnesota. Photo by Daniel Anderson for Bluestem Prairie.
Editor's note: If you have a tale of voting for justice--
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