I lived in Washington, D.C., during the Obama presidency. Back then, I worked as a journalist, covering Capitol Hill for Southern California Public Radio. Although I’ve since moved back home to Los Angeles, I was back in D.C. this month for the American Library Association annual meeting.

Tuesday was Election Day in Washington, and I stopped by the gymnasium that used to be my polling place. This being Washington, where everyone seems to work for the government, the election supervisor was a former Secret Service agent. She spoke with pride about her many years in public service and seemed to be keeping the same careful eye on the voting machines as she did on more than one president.

I thought about her on day four of the Jan. 6 Committee hearings. I was lucky enough to snag a front-row seat. I sat so close, I had to keep moving my purse so witnesses wouldn’t trip over the straps. I was close enough to see a ripped corner of the brown, scuffed briefcase of Arizona’s House speaker, Republican Rusty Bowers, which held a binder of notes and a double-spaced page of comments. So close, I could see former Georgia election worker Shaye Moss tearfully wave her neon orange and yellow fingernails under the witness table, tearfully refusing the four Kleenex boxes within reach, until her mother handed her a tissue.

Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, is sworn in to testify as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

You could not help but be moved by testimony about the harassment these individuals received from Rudy Giuliani, from online trolls, from angry mobs on their front lawns, and from Donald Trump himself.

But what moved me most was the steel backbone, the rock-solid belief that each of these individuals expressed about their individual role in American democracy. Bowers’ voice cracked as he spoke of his admiration for Ronald Reagan, and again when he invoked his belief that our Constitution was divinely inspired. Moss spoke with joy about helping elderly voters cast their ballots. She whispered that it was those who had fought for the right to vote in generations past who inspired her to become an election worker.

At a time when it’s fashionable to laugh at those who choose public service over a fat paycheck, it was inspiring to sit among heroes. Everyday people, with a battered briefcase or extra long fake eyelashes, talked about their oaths to uphold the Constitution and to ensure an honest election.

I served as a poll worker for several years. I remember a very long day spent plugging in voting machines, going over the rolls with a ruler and a ballpoint pen to cross off voters as they picked up paper ballots, packing up the equipment at the end of the day. It was exhausting. It was important. It was an honor.

I remember the November 2008 election, long after the polls had closed, when the ballot boxes were sealed and sent on their way to the county recorder’s office. A few poll workers gathered outside. Most of them were older, African-American women, not unlike Ruby Freeman and that former Secret Service agent. That night, after their official duties were done, those women unmasked their utter joy because they were able to participate in an election with a Black man on the ballot for the presidency. It was as if fighting for the right to vote had been worth it. Democracy had finally worked.

Moss testified about her fellow election workers, seen in a video deliberately misused to spread lies about “ballots in suitcases.” Not one of them is still a poll worker today. Some were intimidated with doxxing and death threats. Others just had enough. Who will take their place? Will cynicism about our democratic process continue to drive down voter turnout? Will the next generation believe elections are rigged and just decide not to vote at all?

There is a solution. Talk to your kids about Jan. 6. Take them with you if you vote in person this November. Let them see you fill out your ballot if you vote by mail or drop off your ballot. Volunteer as a poll worker. Help inspire that next generation to believe in the American experiment — and not just to believe in it, but to commit to playing their part in making it work.

Superman’s 21st-century motto isn’t about leaping tall buildings anymore. Today it’s “Truth, justice, and a better tomorrow.” Shaye Moss was wearing neon-colored nails instead of a neon-colored cape. But she, Ruby Freeman, Rusty Bowers and countless other American patriots like them? They’re the superheroes we need right now.

Felde, a longtime public radio journalist, is author and producer of “The Fina Mendoza Mysteries,” books and podcasts about the fictional daughter of a congressman who pursues adventures inside the U.S. Capitol and teaches young readers about the U.S. Constitution.

Copyright © 2021, New York Daily News

Copyright © 2021, New York Daily News