Views from voters at William R. Talley Recreation Center

Outside of the William R. Talley Recreation Center, Frederick County Board of Education candidate Patti Lee Worsley was playing "America the Beautiful" on a keyboard.

Inside the recreation center, voters were doing their civic duty.

Civic duty was part of the reason why Miranda Ducey said she was voting Tuesday morning.

But as a parent, she also felt like it was important to vote in the Frederick County Board of Education race. With the county continuing to grow and a deficit in the Board of Education budget, it was important to think of the future, she said.

She voted for Josh Bokee, Veronica Lowe and Jerry Alexandratos.

"I don't know ... what the future will hold with that deficit with our growth, so I think that's really important to have that representation," she said.

Ducey said she personally knows Lowe, since they are both on a board for Woman to Woman Mentoring, a local nonprofit. It's important to know your community and the people who are running, she said.

Beth Molesworth voted on Tuesday with the idea of preserving community democracy in the United States.

She's voted for most of her mature life, she said.

"It's a really important responsibility as part of being an American," she said.

For Molesworth, Democrats Joe Biden, Angela Alsobrooks and April McClain Delaney were the best candidates for the job of preserving democracy.

She also voted for the candidates on the "apple ballot" in the Frederick County Board of Education race, which includes Josh Bokee, Janie Monier, and Chad King Wilson Sr. Apple ballot candidates are those endorsed by the unions representing Frederick County Public Schools employees.

"It's part of ... living in our community and preserving what we have and looking forward to the future in which we hope the town and all of our individuals prosper," she said.

Mike Malm said you have to vote or you can't complain.

Malm has been a Republican since he was 18, but hasn't always voted for all Republican candidates, he said. He always likes to critically think about candidates, he said, and pick the best option.

That's why he voted for Nikki Haley for the Republican presidential nominee instead of Donald Trump, he said. Republicans and Democrats have become too extreme, he said, and legislators don't work together anymore.

"How do you run a country with two tribes?" he said.