The American republic rests on the principle of one person and one vote. The voting booth is one of the most inviolable patches of American soil. Not that this ever prevented photographers from sticking their lenses inside polling places across the breadth of this great land, from seething city to bucolic township.

As you cast your ballot today, consider those who have voted before you and contemplate the amazing continuum that has led us to this time and place.

Left: Farmers of German and Russian stock, all