First Time Voter: Annabel Swansey
This is part of a series of voter profiles of Kids Voting youth leaders who are casting their first adult vote. Check often at KVD First Time Voter Gallery for more new voter profiles!
Annabel Swansey in front of the Durham Main Library Early Voting site after her first vote. She is wearing Durham’s first I Voted contest winning sticker, along with her sticker which won the 2022 Durham I Voted sticker contest for youth.
When & where are you voting? Early Voting
What’s one thing you are excited about for your first vote? I am excited to have more of a say in democracy!
How has your experience with Kids Voting Durham prepared you for your first vote? I knew what to do since I was already in the habit of voting, but this time it was official.
What issues are most important to you this election? Civil rights, gun control, regulations on corporations and billionaires.
What characteristics do you most value in a candidate? Accountability, honesty, compassion.
Anything else you’d like to tell us? I was excited to see the sticker I designed.
KVD Program Coordinator Carolyn Kreuger adds: “Annabel is the last in a line of Swansey youth leaders and kid voters, following her older brothers Jack, who was one of KVD’s first youth leaders, and Ned. Annabel started being an engaged participant in Kids Voting when she was still in early elementary school, often with her brothers or her mom JC Swansey who has long served on the Kids Voting Advisory Board, currently as co-Chair. Annabel’s a artistic sensibility allowed her to express her civic spirit and contribute to Kids Voting in unique and valuable ways. From early on she shared her considerable talents in ways that inspired and encouraged others, including illustrating our Election Guide and having the winning entry in the 2022 Durham Board of Elections I Voted sticker contest. Having the last Swansey youth leader become a full-fledged adult voter seems like the close of a really wonderful era of Kids Voting Durham history, but also the dawn of a great period for our electorate with more and more informed, engaged voters like Annabel and her brothers. Congratulations and thank you Annabel!”
Examples of Annabel’s creative civic contributions over the years, from left to right: Her 2022 winning Durham Board of Election I Voted sticker contest entry 2022; Annabel’s elementary school illustration of her voting superhero — her mom, Captain Awesome, and her sidekick Vote Goat; her portraits of 2021 Mayor Candidates Elaine O’Neal and Javiera Caballero for the KVD Election Guide & Just Talk Durham ezine; Annabel’s first illustration of Vote Goat in 2015 with her sign sharing that she voted in Kids Voting elections because she cares about Durham.
