Do Trappists vote in a presidential election?

I was wondering if Trappist monks vote in presidential and other elections?

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Trappists take very seriously our right and our responsibility to vote.  Consequently, most monks and nuns arrange to get to the voting booth on election day and Trappist abbots and abbesses generally encourage them to do so.

I think most people might be surprised at how intensely aware and concerned Trappists are, (men and women who have “left the world”), about the present historic political climate in the U.S.  Our separation from the world is not at all intended to foster ignorance or indifference to the plight of the poor, the unborn, immigrants, and those who are most vulnerable and precious to God.  Actually, our solitude and immersion in God’s word causes us to be especially wounded by evidence of human cruelty and injustice, and so we have a unique motive to get out and vote.

One very pronounced difference in Trappist’s response to an approaching presidential election is that we are generally extremely cautious and deliberate in how we express our views to each other.  Americans tend to “spew” opinions at one another on T.V. in the blogosphere, at the bus-stop . . . One doesn’t have that luxury in a cloister.  In silence and solitude, an insulting word can be remembered and carried in the heart of a brother for years.  Consequently, though our opinions are as strong as anyone’s, our voices are much softer and we tend to be more considerate of each other’s feelings than many people are today.