The Voting Experience
Council member Westmoreland recalls his voting experience
Voting plays an invaluable role in our American political system. Whether it’s a vote for president or local boards and commissions, casting a ballot shapes the futures of cities, states, and the country.
With the 2020 general election coming up, this series will offer a look at the voting experiences for members of the Atlanta City Council.
Next in our series is Post 2 At-Large Council member Matt Westmoreland, who first voted in November 2005 after turning 18 the previous summer.
“I was a senior at Grady High School in Midtown. I remember voting in the city elections, especially the re-election of Shirley Franklin. She’s been a mentor of mine for a long time and it was awesome to cast a ballot for her in her reelection campaign,” Westmoreland said.
His interest in politics and government started as a child growing up in Atlanta.
“The first time I remember being involved in politics at all was nine years before voting when I stood outside the Morningside Elementary School Halloween Carnival with a Bill Clinton mask on the Saturday before the election and shook hands with everybody,” he said. “Whether I was a nine-year-old dressed up as a president or an 18-year-old high school senior voting for the first time, I’ve always been a political nerd and very interested in government.”
In terms of encouraging more people to vote, Westmoreland said he can understand why people may feel dispirited or disengaged from government, but that politics still plays a vital and significant role.
“I’ve always been drawn to and interested in government, politics and public service because I think that government is an entity that has the ability to pull levers to do good for people and to do right by people,” he said. “It’s such a giant institution in society that the way you make change, the way you move the needle, and the way you get us closer to the way we want to be as a society and a community is to either run for office and be the person that helps to make the policies or by voting to put the right and best people in positions to bring about the change that we want to create.”
