Ojai Valley School senior Nolan Colborn walked into the Ojai Fire Station 22 on Tuesday, ready to exercise his right to vote.
Having turned 18 just two months prior, it was Nolan’s first time voting, joining more than 114 million Americans nationwide who turned out at the polls for the 2018 midterm elections. After carefully studying the issues, Nolan took about 10 minutes to fill out the lengthy ballot and feed it into the voting machine at his local polling place.
His inaugural vote was met with a round of applause from poll workers.
“Voting today was important to me so I could voice my opinion,” Nolan said, right after casting his ballot. “Not a lot of other countries have that.”
That’s what the months of campaigning, commercials, accusations, and divisions had come down to — 10 minutes of doing his part to keep America’s democracy strong.
Nolan was among the handful of OVS seniors who participated in the process for the first time, using various methods to cast their ballots and make their voices heard.
“It’s our responsibility,” said Nolan’s mother OVS history teacher Laurel Colborn, who drives home the importance of voting to her government students. “It’s a privilege that we have in our country and I want my students to exercise that. ”
In addition to Nolan being able to vote in his first election two other OVS seniors voted for the first time— Elliot Oechsner, and Kelly MacConnell.
Kelly cast a provisional ballot at Live Oak Christian Fellowship Church in Ojai where she volunteered to be a poll-worker.
Kelly originally wanted to vote by mail but by Election Day had not received her ballot. She decided the night before the election she would instead cast a provisional ballot. Kelly’s votes will only count for state-wide and national issues because she voted in the Ventura County when her hometown is in Los Angeles county
“I am so lucky to live in a Democracy and I feel like it is my duty to participate,” Kelly said.
Elliot cast a conditional ballot at the Ventura government center.
Initially, Elliot pre-registered to vote when he was 16 in Alameda county. Then he moved more than five hours away. On Tuesday, he came to the realization he couldn’t drive all the way back to vote. Instead, he talked to dorm parent Tammy Scott and coordinated a way to drive down to the Ventura Government Center to caste a provisional ballot.
Elliot was grateful he could find a way to voice his opinion.
“It felt good to have a chance to change the future and attempt to elect people into office,” he said.
For OVS senior Conway Gilbreth it was his second time voting. He first went to the polls earlier this year, a few weeks after having turned 18. This time he mailed in his ballot, eliminating any need to show up at the polls.
“I really wanted to be able to vote but I didn’t think I had time to go to the polling place so I decided to do it from home,” said Conway, adding that he studied this year’s ballot, and especially the propositions, with particular interest. “There are things I like about America and things I really don’t like. I want to be involved, it’s as simple as that for me.”
It was also that simple for Nolan as he rode with his mother to the polling place near his home to cast his first ballot. He too studied the ballot, asking his mother about various candidates and the propositions. He left feeling proud, filled with the excitement of having participated for the first time in the democratic process.
His mother was proud too.
“I’m really excited about Nolan being able to vote,” Mrs. Colborn said. “Since I teach government, I love everything about Democracy and voting so I feel like it’s my responsibility as a parent to pass that down to him.”