News-Record.com

We at Scoop love election stories. Here’s one Jeri Rowe relays from Melissa Carter:

On Nov. 4, she walked into Staples on Battleground, to order Christmas cards for her husband’s chemical company, when she saw Bobby Armstrong, one of the employees, wearing over his heart, “I Voted," one of the ubiquitous stickers of that day.

Carter asked whether he had, and Armstrong told her yes. All 27 members of his family.

Huh? We know. Carter was perplexed, too. So, Armstrong went on to tell her about his grandfather, and the time he got his ribs broken while he went to cast his own vote back in 1964. And Armstrong’s grandfather still voted.

So, Armstrong and his entire family – including a cousin who drove up from Charlotte – voted together, all at once, in memory of Armstrong’s grandfather.

And yes, Armstrong and his grandfather were African-American.

Armstrong also told Carter about his parents. They’re lifelong Republicans. But this year, they had in their front yard a sign supporting Barack Obama for president. When Armstrong asked them why, his father quoted a popular lyric we at Scoop love to sing in the late hours of the day.

“Son," Armstrong’s dad told him, “The times, they are a-changin.’"

Since that chance meeting a few weeks ago, Carter has told Armstrong’s story to a handful of people. And every time, they got caught up in the emotion of a moment in a family’s personal history.

All for a grandfather who wanted to vote.

“I have three sons, and for all three of them, this was their first opportunity to vote," said Carter, a 52-year-old community liaison for a home-care physician. “I told them, “Be wise,’ because these were elections were very powerful for so many people. Either way it went, we were changing history."