Early voters arrived at their polling station to a buzz of skateboard wheels and excited chatter.

Tucking their placards under their arms, they nodded to Election Judge Beatrice Owen and headed to cast their ballots.

It was a small moment, but it made her smile. She preserves the memory, one of her favorite memories of Election Day, during the long days she and other members of the League of Women Voters spend registering voters and the even longer nights at candidate forums for lesser-known races to flip . vote to see.

“This is your country,” said Owen, president of the League of Women Voters of St. Louis. Paul. Voting, she said, is a civic responsibility and duty.

In an election cycle fraught with anxiety, stress and anger, Owen still sees Minnesotans approaching the polls with all the hope and excitement of a first-time voter on a skateboard.

“I think in general people are kind of excited,” she said. Excited enough to research constitutional amendments on this year’s ballot, excited enough to read about down-ballot judicial candidates, excited enough to stop by a League of Women Voters booth at an event and learn more. “It’s like saying, ‘I take responsibility for my country.’ I think that’s reflected in a positive, upbeat attitude.”

Hearing about positive, upbeat voters is a welcome change from news of a stressed-out electorate that lies awake at night wondering what will happen to those of us in the ever-increasing Donald Trump era. enemy list.

The 2024 presidential election binds us. Yearbook of the American Psychological Association Stress in America The report finds a stressed and anxious nation, where politics is tearing families apart and fueling fears about the nation’s future.