Inspiring photos of voting worldwide

As Americans face a tumultuous presidential election, we could probably use a reminder that voting is a privilege that should be celebrated.

First-time voters, young future voters, voters who risk their lives around the world – they all show that democracy is an amazing responsibility.

Here, an Afghan woman shows her inked finger after voting at a polling station for the 2010 parliamentary elections north of Kabul, Afghanistan. 

The Taliban had warned voters to boycott the polls, threatening violence against those who disobeyed. 

A message from above

Members of the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team encourage Americans who live abroad to submit their absentee ballots in time for the 2016 election. 

Early voting, long wait

A woman kneels down to take a break while waiting in line to vote early in Los Angeles in October. 

Los Angeles officials said some voters were waiting more than two hours to cast their early ballots. 

Voting with a little help

A German mother, with the help of a toddler, casts her ballot in Berlin state elections in September 2016.

A line out the door

Early voters wait in Columbus, Ohio, to cast their votes the day before Election Day 2016. 

A helping hand

Harold Weitzel helps his wife, Sally, cast her absentee vote in Cleveland, Ohio, in October 2016.

Absentee assistance

Lt. j.g. Jessica Vaeth explains to U.S. Navy sailors how to register for an absentee ballot in August 2016.

Poll pose

Pakistani women pose with national identity cards as they line up to cast ballots during the general election in Rawalpindi in 2013. 

Voting in Pakistan is often disrupted by violence.

Kids can "vote" too

Schoolchildren register for a special “Kids Vote” while their parents cast their midterm-election ballots at a Kentucky elementary school in 2014.

The “Kids Vote” was designed to encourage children to exercise their right to vote when they turn 18. 

Kuwaiti women make their voices heard

Kuwaiti women show the victory sign as they wait to cast their vote for the first time in the national parliamentary elections north of Kuwait City in June 2006. 

Heavy turnout

Heavy early voter turnout makes for a lengthy wait in Columbus, Ohio, the day before Election Day 2016. 

Absentee action

A South Korean soldier walks out of a booth after casting his absentee ballot for the country’s 2012 presidential election in Seoul.

Brand-new trans voters

Bangladeshi ‘hijra’ social worker Joya Shikder holds her national identity card in Dhaka in December 2008. 

Among the millions of new voters in the 2008 elections were roughly 100,000 hijras — cross-dressing, pre- and post-operative trans people — allowed to cast ballots for the first time. 

Voter registration made easy

LaRon Brown has his Ohio voter registration card filled out by an America Coming Together worker outside his home in September 2004. 

ACT registered more than 300,000 new voters in Ohio alone ahead of the 2004 presidential election.

Voting after the storm

A firefighter votes in a tent used as a polling place in Rockaway, Queens, as New York recovers from Hurricane Sandy in November 2012. 

Dozens of polling stations in New Jersey and New York were forced to relocate because of storm damage. 

Fancy ballot boxes

Men in Oman cast their votes at a polling station in Muscat in October 2003. 

The election was the first in which all Omanis over 21 were given the right to vote, compared with only one in four in 2000.

Exercising the right to vote

An Iranian woman casts her ballot in the presidential elections in Tehran on June 12, 2009. 

Women gained the right to vote in Iran in 1963.

Political rights for women

Kuwaitis celebrate after women are granted the right to vote and run for office in 2005. 

“I congratulate the women of Kuwait for having achieved their political rights,” said Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Expats vote from afar

Abeer Al-Zayadi waits for new Iraqi-American voters to register at her Michigan polling station in January 2005. 

An estimated 240,000 Iraqi expatriates living in the U.S. were eligible to vote in the 2005 Iraqi elections for the first time in 50 years. 

Voices carry overseas

An Iranian citizen living in the Washington, D.C., area fills out her ballot as she prepares to vote in the Iranian presidential election in 2013.

A new voter

Noa Baryam, 18, registers to vote in the National Republican Committee’s “Reggie the Registration Rig,” an 18-wheeler converted into a mobile voter registration site, in 2004 in New York City. 

Saudi women enjoy new right

Saudi women cast their votes for the Jeddah municipal elections in December 2015. 

The election was the first time in which Saudi women were allowed to vote in a governmental election.