Leo, 64, called his son at 7:20 a.m. today to ask if he had voted. Not yet, not yet.

At 12:34 p.m., the younger Martin was heading to his polling station over lunch break – not the style of his dad, who voted first thing this morning.

He’s also teaching his daughters, 9-year-old Cassie and 5-year-old Kate, the civic responsibility he learned while stepping with his dad behind the old voting booth curtains that once obscured voters as they made their selections.

Two years ago, after Cassie went with her dad to vote, she wrote to President Bush and Governor Carcieri to congratulate them on their wins, her dad said. And they both wrote back.

“Right there, she felt part of the franchise,” her dad said.

The message those letters drove home for her was that she matters, that she has “an important role to play,” he said.

To this day, the letters hang on her wall.

While Martin’s car spreads his message, it does not reflect his political views. He wouldn’t give those up.

“Oh no,” he said. “You never tell how you’re going to vote. As long as you vote. I never follow a party. I always follow my heart. Whatever I believe in, that’s what I’m running with.”

What he wears on his sleeve is his love for that little Mini Cooper, which has a name: “This is the Freddie Mercury Mobile,” he says in a way that tells you all of his friends know the car and its name.

A longtime Queen fan, Martin has stuck a bumper sticker with a quote from the band’s song “Bohemian Rhapsody” on Freddie: “Scaramouche, Scaramouche, Will You Do The Fandango.”

The flags -- and the British plate on the front of the car emblazoned with the word “Freddie” -- often prompt people to ask: “Are you British?”

“No, but my car is,” Martin replies.

Heading off to vote on this primary day, the Mini Cooper’s owner is definitely all-American.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson