It’s Election Day 1956. Imagine being a young girl, pulled out of school early and taken straight to a polling site. Now, imagine this place is Washington, D.C., where neither your parents nor your vote counts in that year’s presidential election. So, what do you decide to do? Well, if you’re Dr. Toni-Michelle Travis, you try and take the situation into your own hands.

At 16, Travis started lobbying for an organization of high school students needing to receive a larger federal payment from the federal governments for Washington, D.C. Achieving her goal, she went off to college and interned for a senator, all while still unable to vote for president in her hometown. “In college, I decided that I need to understand how government works if I was to ever change any of the rules,” said Travis.

In 1961, residents of Washington, D.C. finally gained the right to vote for president of the United States thanks to a constitutional amendment. “It was a thrill to vote in my first presidential election, even though it was by absentee ballot,” said Travis, who went on to influence the world of politics. She has been a professor of government and politics at George Mason University for 25 years. She has also appeared as a political analyst on CNN, Fox, BBC World News and Al-Jazeera.

One of her most recent contributions and achievements is becoming editor of the latest edition of the “Almanac of Virginia Politics: 2008,” which has been published since 1977 by Flora Crater and has now become a George Mason University Press Book.

“The book is dedicated and committed to all of Virginians to promote civic awareness and an informed citizenry,” said Travis. “It’s a snapshot of each legislator. It provides voting records, campaign finances, which bill passed and what became law. So I guess It’s an easy update of what’s happening in the General Assembly.”

The book includes a synopsis of the previous election, provides an analysis of the legislative sessions and process of the Virginia General Assembly and offers an in-depth look into each legislator with a biography and personal information.

“It’s useful because it gives you a lot of information at your finger tips, academic background, contributors, birthdays, overall information that represents you at the state level,” said State Sen. Chap Petersen (D-34).

So, who exactly benefits from the Almanac? “A citizen activist, lobbyist or an official that just needs information” said Travis.

“It’s really the only reference guide and manual basis on who’s who in Virginia Politics,” said Vincent F. Callahan, who represented the 34th District of the House of Delegates from 1968-2008 and now serves the Board of Visitors at George Mason University. “Very objective and not biased. The only thing we had about voting and a lot of useful information for political junkies, such as myself. It’s also useful if you’re a journalist and want to look up information. It’s a very vital service.”

Travis credited her success to the creator of this book, Crater, who entrusted her to carry on the duty of informing the public. “Flora was in Richmond a lot of the time pushing the issues dear to her,” said Travis. “She edited something called the ‘Women’s Activist,’ and she just put this out and had some women who worked with her help keep people informed. She wanted the citizens to know what was going on.”

Like Crater, Travis wants people to know the peculiarities of Virginia politics in Richmond such as the Dillon Rule, which states, “that anything below a state, anything created smaller than the state, is subordinated to the state,” said Travis. For example, counties can’t paint the tops of the school buses white without going back to Richmond to ask if they may.

“Unless people don’t understand the Dillon Rule, they don’t really know what powers anybody has on their lives versus the people who we send to Richmond,” said Travis.

She doesn’t think “The Almanac” necessarily affects the election but considers it a useful resource to have as soon as the elections takes place. “The Almanac” is updated every two years. The one that Travis is currently working on is expected to be out January 2010.