Kitty also had a passion for voting. She started working with the Arlington County Department of Voter Registration and Elections in 2002, first as an election officer, then as an Assistant Registrar. She was chief of Precinct 101 in the Douglas Park neighborhood.

As a young woman, Kitty had been instructed by her dad to save her money for the poll tax. When she came of age, around 1970, she went to register to vote. In her memory of that day, she came to the central registrar’s office and waited patiently at the counter to be acknowledged. The Registrar ignored her, continuing to sort papers at the counter.

Eventually, a man entered behind Kitty and the Registrar welcomed him. The man indicated that Kitty had been there first and that she needed to be served. These small acts of indifference and kindness stayed with her and inspired her.

Kitty was committed to ensuring that each person she interacted with on behalf of the Office of Voter Registration felt seen. Gretchen Reinemeyer, Arlington County’s General Registrar, remembers how Kitty endeavored to make voting accessible to all, assisting voters in understanding the law and their options to successfully cast their ballot.
“While there are countless lessons I learned from Kitty over the years, perhaps the greatest was to make the font size larger! A small act of kindness to anyone over the age of 40 who left their readers at home,” said Reinemeyer.

Kitty’s favorite story from the precinct on election day was when a young man came running in and asked for a curbside ballot on behalf of his wife, who was in labor. As Chief Election Officer, Kitty went into a frenzy to gather the necessary paperwork and get the woman voted and on her way to the hospital. Delivering babies wasn’t covered in election officer training.