(One of them came to my booksigning in Washington last Christmas. I literally burst into tears.)
So my first vote must have been in 1972, for George McGovern. But I have utterly no memory of it. I was feeling sad about that, but now, thinking about it, isn't that amazing? It was normal, regular, important but not...under siege. We had no thoughts that it wouldn't be fair, or that our votes wouldn't be counted, or whatever. It was just--that's what you did.
Do you remember your first presidential vote?
RHYS BOWEN: as a transplanted Brit who became a citizen in 1980 to me it was more important to vote in local elections as California has always been so clearly Democratic. I wanted my say on school board and city council in fact I was being pressured to run for city council ! Every presidential election until now I have been disappointed when my candidate didn’t win. But in 2016 it felt like the end of the world. I know Hilary Clinton. She is a fan of my books. I was devastated—more so because I knew so many people who just didn’t vote. To me it’s a sacred right!
LUCY BURDETTE: I think I voted for Nixon and cancelled out your vote Hank. I’m sorry! I had no idea about politics, none. So I took my father’s suggestion. And then worse yet, I went to the inauguration with the young Republicans. Joe Garagiola stopped me on the street to interview me about why I was there. No idea! So embarrassing. But I’ve not missed a vote since and will not in the future if I can help it.
HALLIE EPHRON: I don’t remember when I first voted, but I do remember leafleting in Harlem to get out the vote for McGovern. Such a depressing outcome. I still have a McGovern scarf. Somewhere.
I vote in every election, including our little local ones. Especially our little local ones! And I know people diss politicians but thank goodness someone has the fortitude to run for anything these days.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Elections were very fraught for me as a young adult. My parents were staunch Republicans who took any discussion or deviation from the platform as a personal insult. So although I could have voted in 1972, I have absolutely no memory of it. I do remember voting for Jimmy Carter in '76, but I'm sure I didn't admit it to my folks.
But as I've grown older, I've become more and more of an impassioned voter, and I vote on everything, down to city council and county judges. I think it is not just a right but a duty, and I believe (yes, even in Texas) that we can and will make a difference.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My first vote was in 1980, and, in classic youthful fashion, I threw it away on a third party candidate, John Anderson. I can’t recall a single thing about him now, other than the fact he was handsome. Now there’s some keen political insight for you.
I have a much more vivid memory of registering to vote. I got the paperwork at the house (I turned 18 the summer after graduating high school) and asked my mother what she was registered as. I have to sidetrack here and point out I must have been living in some hormonal fog, because I remember my folks throwing a fundraiser for Nixon! Anyway, she was obviously a Republican.
Unlike Lucy and Debs, however, I was a spiteful child (we had been having a LOT of conflict in my senior year, almost all of which was brought on by my own behavior) and so I registered as a Democrat. A few years later, with more experience under my belt, I re-registered as a Republican, but my mother got the last laugh - when George W got elected, she became a Democrat!
JENN McKINLAY: When I was nine, I did a book report on Elizabeth Cady Stanton. That pretty much shaped my relationship with voting for the rest of my life. Being a feminist child weaned on the Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman (i.e. Girl Power!), there was no way I was ever going to take my hard fought right to vote for granted. I have voted in every election local (local matters even more!!!) and national from the moment I came of age to vote. It was a thrill, filling out my ballot for Dukakis then and it still is. #VOTE
HANK: How about you, Reds and readers? When was your very first vote?
Voting is a right and a privilege, so I always vote, local and national. I can’t say that I clearly remember voting for the first time, but it must have been the 1972 national election . . . .
ReplyDeleteYes! We were all there! Isn't that lovely/weird/wonderful to think about? xoxo
DeleteI just just too young to vote in the 1992 Presidential election. I voted in the 1994 mid-terms, however, and then the 1996 Presidential election. I have voted in every election, even our weird off season ones for local races. (Seriously, we have some weird ones with no rhyme or reason to them.)
ReplyDeleteMark, are there still dozens of political parties in California? The year my husband lived in Cholame I was out there in late October and was reading the political stuff that had come in the mail for the homeowners where he was staying. It really was crazy. That was 1992.
DeleteYeah the down ballot races are so important! Those are the people who are making decisions that’ll affect you every day... like zoning.
DeleteKaren,
DeleteThere aren't dozens, but we do have more than the two main ones. Of course, it's usually the two main ones that win, as it is in the rest of the country.
There are not
Deleteas many political parties now. Even though there were several in 1992, no one took them seriously. They never won.
There are not
Deleteas many political parties now. Even though there were several in 1992, no one took them seriously. They never won.
Like several of you, I’m rather fuzzy about it, but I’m sure I must have voted for the first time in 1972, the Presidential election. I do know that for some I have voted in every election I was eligible to vote in. I take my right to vote seriously. It’s a right and a responsibility that shouldn’t be taken for granted. I don’t think anyone will forget how they voted, method and for whom, in this election, and with it having been made harder to vote in many places this election, many people will treasure their right to vote more.
ReplyDeleteKathy, thanks for the reminder of how some places have made it harder to vote this year. Connecticut made it easier by allowing COVID as a reason for an absentee ballot. A friend overstated CT’s absentee ballots as restricted to those in outer space with NO way to return on Election Day or very sick and not planning to recover for Election Day.
DeleteMy 21st birthday was 5 days before the 1968 national election. A senior at UCONN, I had been anticipating it for months. Sit-ins, demonstrations, assassinations, Vietnam! I voted straight Democrat, so Hubert Humphrey. I remember feeling so dejected the next day but nothing like 2016.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, Judy!
DeleteYes happy birthday! Yay! We are so glad you were born!
DeleteHappy birthday, Judy!
DeleteThank you so much Karen, Hank and Debs. I love this community! Halloween was very different, but after two Scotches, neat, and dinner on the sidewalk at a French style bistros, it felt like a celebration!
DeleteNo question about when. i voted for first time - 1968, a turbulent time in our country, and I lived in a political place, Cambridge, MA. Nixon v. Humphrey. There were people then who said, "There's no difference between them" - Nixon!- and did an utterly pointless "protest" vote. I knew then, as I knew in 2016, that is ridiculous. Fingers crossed this week.
ReplyDeleteNo difference? Ah. (And have you watched the Chicago 7 movie? I cried and cried.)
DeleteNot yet, Hank, but I was just thinking we should. Although not on election night...
DeleteCount me in as another 1972 first-time voter. While I don't remember it, I know I voted for McGovern. We were Californians, and my parents had spoken for years about how Nixon couldn't be trusted.
ReplyDeleteI am also a dedicated local voter. In my New England small city of 13,000 registered voters, 45% had voted by last Thursday morning. Nearly half had requested mail-in ballots and 85% of those had been returned. That's a turnout far exceeding most elections, and there were still two early voting days left, plus tomorrow. All peaceful so far. I am heartened by this.
Happy birthday. How many birthdays were on Election Day?
DeleteThank you! I just looked it up - nine times since I was born. The last was 2010, and the next will be next year. I do know my mom voted absentee the year of my birth, but I was born on a Sunday, two days before the election.
DeleteHappy birthday, Edith!!!
DeleteHappy birthday, Edith! My birthday is also sometimes Election Day. I think we should make Election Day a national holiday--for voting purposes, of course, but also so every so often we can take the day off for cake and know the whole nation is celebrating.
DeleteHappy Birthday, Edith! Have a lovely day, and eat some cake!
DeleteThank you, thank you, thank you! I will eat cake - extra chocolate, of course.
DeleteHappy day, Scorpio Gigi!
And happy birthday (a couple of days early!) gigi!
DeleteAn early birthday greeting, Edith! I hope you get a fabulous and much-wished-for present on Election Day!
DeleteHappy Birthday, Edith!
DeleteI remember turning 18, then waiting for my best friend to turn 18 (both January babies), so we could go together to register to vote. At the county courthouse!! First time I'd ever needed to go there. Then we voted that year--1972. My parents were proud Democrats and I voted straight down the ticket--but not for them--for my own choices. Democrat all the way. I have tried to vote in all elections--have never missed a presidential one. Last time around on Wednesday morning, I cried, thinking of all the havoc and chaos to come. I cast my vote early this time and delivered it in person to the county elections board. I was heartened by the parade of people waiting to vote in person, those dropping off their ballots--have never seen anything like it.
ReplyDeleteThe 18 year old vote—I really remember that! My pals worked so hard!
DeleteIt was 1968, I was 22 and thought I knew it all. I remember calling Pat Nixon "Plastic Pat" at the dinner table. My mother almost made me go sit in the corner...the ears were firmly pinned back.
ReplyDeleteI did vote for Nixon, he said he had a plan to end the war. Looking back the plan was to tell us he had a plan. Aha! Now I understand the meme "hindsight is 20 20.
As I write this I am 24.5 hours from the polls opening in Hillsborough County. Like many I have voted. Like so many here I am aware and anxious. I am reminded of the mantra I learned when hurricanes are coming.. "What ever happens let it happen" I have done all that I can do now. Except hope.. There is always hope.
It’ll be so fascinating... there’s an understatement.
DeleteMy first vote was for the local election in 1970, the year I was married the first time. I was ill-prepared, but it was still a good experience, and I've voted every year but one ever since, and almost every primary and local election, too. The year I missed was because of a last-minute business trip Election Day week that came up too late for me to get an absentee ballot. Until I got involved with the League of Women Voters I had little grasp of most of the issues, especially the ones written in deliberately tortured language to obscure the purpose of a "yes" vote or a "no" vote. The League helps make sense of that, as well as to show the true differences between candidates, in their own words.
ReplyDeleteOne of my lawyer friends really made me think a couple weeks ago. She says that we are in the situation we are in right now, with a Senate mired in inactivity for political reasons, a Supreme Court Justice ramrodded into place (the third one), and extreme gerrymandering, all because of people not voting in the midterms and local elections. The 2010 midterm election was a watershed moment, when Tea Party extremists took charge, and while they brought real change, it was not positive change. Most of those candidates were not ready for primetime, including our own Representative. Who never, ever answers constituent emails or letters except with a form letter that has nothing to do with the topic addressed.
We are seeing a lot of new voters this election, a lot of civic excitement, even though some of it is pretty grim. We need to help those new voters carry forward that civic responsibility, emphasis on "response", and encourage them to continue to be involved in the electoral process. We can tell they need help because of the major confusion around how the primary systems work, back in the 2016 election cycle. Bernie Sanders galvanized a lot of young voters, but they didn't understand how he lost the nomination. To think that a 65% turnout of eligible voters has not happened since 1908 should be a national shame. LeBron James had never voted before! He's a role model, for heaven's sake--he's 35! Kanye West wanted to run for President, and HE had never voted. Civics isn't taught in a huge number of schools any more, but we as individuals can help by mentoring young voters.
This is going to be my new mission, going forward. Anyone care to join me?
Good one! Yes I think that would be an honor—it’s shocking how people think their vote doesn’t matter.
DeleteAnd we'll all be watching Ohio. Again. You guys must be sick to death of the ads.
DeleteNot me, Hallie. I stopped watching network TV in 2010, specifically because of the nonstop political propaganda. Even in between election seasons. Not worth it.
DeleteDemocracy is a living project, so none of us can afford to take our eye off the ball -- government by the people, for the people -- for even one round of elections.
DeleteHank: I really appreciate this post today.
Karen: I really appreciate your analysis in your comment.
Thanks, Amanda.
DeleteKaren, so glad you mentioned the League of Women Voters--I check their website for voter information on the local and state candidates before every election.
DeleteAnd so hoping Ohio goes blue--even if by a squeak!
Karen, you are so right. Rick and I have been talking a lot these last few months (years!) about how few people seem to understand basic civics. This is the stuff we learned in high school! I am 100% behind keeping new voters engaged AND getting civics back into schools!
DeleteAw, thanks, Amanda. xx
Delete1968 and I was living in a new place, first teaching job. Although I don't remember for sure I think I must have had an absentee ballot because I know I didn't go into any voting booth. Huh! I wonder now when did I first go into a booth to vote? No idea.
ReplyDeleteI do remember trying to vote in a primary, maybe 1980. I felt sick and lousy with a cold but I really wanted to vote. I got there and was told it didn't open until noon. Still sick and disgusted (with myself for not knowing what I should have) I didn't go back. No idea who I planned to vote for in that primary - it might have been for a local race.
Didn’t open til noon? Whoa. In what state?
DeleteI turned 18 in the fall of 1991, so that would have been my first vote - and I have no memory of it. I do remember voting in the national election in 1992 because my friends and I watched the returns as Clinton won. I've voted in (almost) every election since. I even voted by absentee ballot when I was stationed in the Caribbean in the fall of 1995 (that would have been a local election).
ReplyDeleteI took the Girl to her first election in the fall of 2018. I have a picture of her. The Boy is 18 this fall and this is his first election, but I don't know if he's registered OR if he requested an absentee ballot. I know there was a big registration drive at college. They even put a registration paper in the welcome packets for incoming freshmen and a form to request an absentee ballot, but he won't talk to me about those kinds of things. Boys.
Really? Huh.
DeleteStationed, Liz? For what?
I worked for the Small Business Association immediately after I graduated from college and was sent to Puerto Rico and then St. Croix for support of recovery operations for Hurricane Marilyn. I typed approval or denial letters for loans (individuals had to be denied a loan from the SBA before they could apply for aid from FEMA).
DeleteI turned 18 in '72 also. I was thrilled to vote for McGovern. I voted for John Anderson, which was silly. I was devastated in 2016, and now I am really nervous because of the brazen attempts to manipulate - to cheat - on the vote count. But I have voted in every election, including getting out of bed after surgery not once, but twice, to vote. The second time was just 2 years ago, when Alabama elected a Democratic replacement for the Senate seat that had been vacated by Jeff Sessions (first Attorney General for tRump)! It was the best feeling!
ReplyDeleteYes so agree—it does feel powerful!
DeleteOh the John Anderson votes! Everyone regrets... xx
How lovely to feel that your vote made a difference!
DeleteMary Robert, as Democrats with fond familial ties to Alabama, my kids and I are BIG Doug Jones fans. I can't believe Tommy Tuberville is leading in the polls - you'd think he'd get an automatic "nope" from every Tide fan in the state.
DeleteJulia, Doug is such a great guy and cares about helping ALL the people of Alabama. I'm hoping we will put him over the top like 2018 - it was just a little margin (1200 votes is what I think I remember) - but it was a win!!
DeleteHas anyone ever worked at a polling place?
ReplyDeleteYes, several times, both in the November elections and in primaries and special elections.
DeleteIt's a great experience, although it makes for a very long day. Election judges have to be there before the polls open early in the morning, and stay until all the ballots are tallied, checked for correct counts (spoiled ballots have to be accounted for, too), and placed safely in the locked containers. Whoever is designated the lead judge for that polling place is in charge of making sure the ballots get to the Board of Elections, too.
If you vote in person, be sure to thank your poll workers. They do an awesome job of making sure our votes are made safely and correctly.
I have acted as scrutineer for local candidates in both provincial and federal elections. It's a volunteer role and ensures the validity of the poll's vote count. It really brings home how it is ordinary people who make the democratic process work.
DeleteThe Maine Millennial will be working at our town hall polling place tomorrow! She's doing Covid crowd control - making sure people are spaced if there's a line, handing out masks, answering questions. I'm very proud of her for getting involved - every time I've voted since 1980, it seems like all the wonderful poll volunteers are in their eighties. We need more young people guarding the machinery of democracy!
DeleteOld Navy is giving their employees paid time off to work the polls, which I think is just terrific. And they are all young.
DeleteI did, as a grad student in Bloomington. They paid $50 for the day, which really helped my skimpy budget!
DeleteWhile not to work in the polling place, nationwide Best Buy is closed until noon tomorrow to make it easier for employees to vote
DeleteThis is all SO wonderful! Love hearing this.
DeleteJulia, so many of the people who have worked as election officials are older, and fall into that "most vulnerable" category right now. It's encouraging to see younger people signing up to work the polls this year.
DeleteI signed up, kind of at the last minute, but our county was already fully staffed.
You all know that every polling place is required to have an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, right? Some areas have a hard time filling one party's quotas or the other.
My parents were staunch Republicans. My mother involved with the local Republican party and served every year as a poll worker.
ReplyDelete1972 was the first year I was eligible to vote in a presidential election. I was in college in Florida at the time and would have voted for McGovern, but I don't remember if I was able to vote. I'm not sure if NJ offered absentee ballots except to serving military. The first election I remember voting in was 1976 and I voted for Jimmy Carter.
Oh, that’s interesting! And interesting that you don’t remember… I am fascinated by how many of us don’t!
Delete1968 first time voted. Small town New England, family full of Republicans. Had to drive an hour home to vote and all the way there, the disturbing political ad heart beating ominously “Spiro Agnew. A heart beat away from the presidency.” As I pulled the lever for Hubert Humphrey, I felt all my Republican ancestors rolling in their graves. (Well, the polling place was next to the cemetery.)
ReplyDeleteAnother memory: first (maybe only) time Dad and I voted for the same candidate was 1980 when we voted for John Anderson. Dad in CT, me in WA.
Oh, there is certainly a story there! Yes, from time to time there will be people who try to make a third-party. I remember Ralph Nader defending himself about that, saying someone has to try.
DeleteElizabeth, "the polling place was next to the graveyard." Too funny!
DeleteToday I'm remembering the one time I didn't vote. It was 1980, and I was living and working on the Navajo Reservation, Tuba City Indian Hospital. I neglected to get an absentee ballot from my state of residence, Texas, and I still think because of my negligence, Reagan won. Nasty old man.
ReplyDeleteI've voted absentee for years, mostly because we tend to travel in October and November. It is just easier. And this year, much safer. I voted a straight ticket of course, always do, always Democrat in national elections. In local ones, which I feel are so important, I spend more time looking at the candidates, their beliefs, previous performance, policies et al, and then I vote for the black woman with the hispanic surname.
So THERE.
I just burst out laughing. I have to admit, that is a reasonable fallback.
DeleteAnd oh, I see now. I wondered who’s fault that was!
Ann, when my middle daughter was in fifth grade she came home from school announcing that she aspired to be the first woman President. I looked at her, ten years old, and made some calculations. It would be 25 years before she would be eligible to run.
DeleteI said, "God help us, if we have to wait that long for a woman President". She's now 36.
The upshot of her comment, though, was that I began looking at women candidates--so few in the US at the time really had the slightest path towards the Oval Office. So I decided right then to start voting for women candidates of any party persuasion, as long as they weren't obviously crazy (I had to draw the line at Sarah Palin, for instance). And I have stayed committed to that path.
Ann -- That's a great fall-back position, indeed!
DeleteAnn, you've got a system! How about a woman with a Lebanese name? Our congressional candidate is Lulu Seikaly, first generation daughter of Lebanese parents, and she's terrific. Fingers SO crossed for her. Women rock!
DeleteKaren and Ann, I need to put a plug in for an organization I support called "Moms In Office." It supports progressive women candidates who are mothers - the demographic LEAST likely to run for office. It passes along money, advice, expertise and contacts to women running at all levels, with an emphasis on women who are getting into the political ecosystem at the state and local level. Those women, who are Karen's daughter's age, are the ones who will be running for president in 2040!
DeleteThat is great, Julia. Looking this up!
DeleteI look closely at candidates for local, state and federal offices. I will never vote for an anti-choice candidate, no matter which party or whether it is a female who is running. I would never impose my religious beliefs on anyone else, so why would I vote for someone who would do that to me?
DeleteI always vote in primaries and local elections, too. My vote counts whether my candidate wins or not.
Great way of looking at it, Judy! It counts!
DeleteThank you for telling us about Moms in Office, Julia! I'm going to mention this to my three daughters, as well. Along with Emily's List, it's awesome to see women getting a boost from a newly invented "old girls' network"!
DeleteAnd I suspect there are an awful lot of women like California's Katie Porter who are brilliant, and would benefit the country so much if they were to get a hand up.
DeleteMy first time was 1976. I voted for Jimmy Carter, especially after Ford told New York City to drop dead.
ReplyDeleteOh, I remember that! Such a headline.
DeleteCalifornia was a Republican state during my childhood, with Johnson being the only Democrat to get our electoral votes from the 1950s through the 1980s. How times change! The first election I can remember involved my Mom explaining that she was voting for McGovern in order to cancel out my Dad's vote for Nixon. Politics is really the only thing they disagreed on though, and otherwise they were very happy together for 52 years. My own first presidential election was 1984, when I voted for Mondale, even though I knew California (and as it turned out, everyone but MN) would vote for a second Reagan term.
ReplyDeleteYou know, when you think of the candidacies of McGovern, Dukakis, and Mondale, it's no wonder the Democrats have been so gunshy on presidential elections till recently.
DeleteOohhhhh --funny how long ago that was.
DeleteI think my first time voting would have been in the (Canadian) federal election of 1979; I was 19. It's very possible I cast my vote for Joe Clark, one of the last (if not the last) "red" Tory (i.e., a progressive Conservative) to win the Prime Minister-ship in Canada. He didn't last long, as another election was held the next year.
ReplyDeleteVoting is so important, in every/any election, and I just don't understand people who don't take that duty seriously. I even knock on doors in the process: https://fiveyearsawriter.blogspot.com/2019/09/why-i-knock-on-doors.html
Good for you, Amanda!
DeleteYAY Amanda!
DeleteMy first vote was during my third year of college. I am embarrassed to say that my candidate lost :(. I think that of all the presidential elections I voted in, only 4 times did my candidate win!
ReplyDeleteRhys, that is cool about Hillary. I know Hillary too since I interned in her office. I think the Republicans Never forgave her for leaving the Republican party. She started out as a Young Republican, campaigning for Barry Goldwater. When I travelled to Scandinavia, she got wonderful coverage in the media. So different from the American media. They love her and Scandinavia has had several lady / female / women leaders. Your comment about voting reminded me of Prince Harry saying that he cannot vote because he is not an American Citizen.
Julia, I think that John Anderson ran as a Republican and some people voted for him because they did not want Ronald Reagan to be the GOP nominee.
Hank,
That's great about the senator coming to your book signing. I guess there are some politicians out there who are readers like JFK, WJC aka BC and Obama.
Someone mentioned Nixon. I think that the specter of "communism" scared so many people that they would vote for anyone who was "anti-communist". Ironically, now it is the GOP who are more like the Soviets in the form of behaviors! These days I cannot tell the difference between current Republicans and the Communists.
Diana
Diana, how cool that you interned in Hillary's office!
DeleteDiana, my mother, the Nixon supporter, became a huge supporter of the Clintons (as a New Yorker, Hillary was her senator, and according to mom did an excellent job.) I'm pretty sure she re-registered so she could vote in the primaries for Al Gore. Mom always said her political beliefs remained pretty consistent - it was the Republican party that changed under her feet.
DeleteWOw, you interned in her office! Everyone I've heard of who really knows her seems to think she's amazing when she's being herself--did you see that?
DeleteThe Cincinnati author Duffy Brown and I attended Hillary Clinton's kickoff to her campaign here in Cincinnati together. While we were waiting in line we chatted with a guy who worked in her office for years, and he said the same thing, that she was lovely, and a great boss. His daughter was with him, and they were very excited about her candidacy.
DeleteDeborah, thanks!
DeleteJulia, the Republican Party definitely changed! As Ted Kennedy said, it was no longer the party of Abe Lincoln. My grandfather was a Republican because he admired Abe Lincoln. I worked on the Gore for President in 2000 and I was in Nashville on Election Night!
Hank, thanks for sharing! Yes, I saw that.
Karen, that's cool that you and Duffy Brown were in Cincinnati for Hillary's kickoff to her campaign. Agreed that Hillary is a lovely person. I saw Hillary at a book signing event for her memoir before she ran for President in 2014 (two years before the election). There were people passing buttons asking us to wear them. The button said Hillary 2016!
Diana
I voted absentee for the first time in 2016, because I was in London. I left the day before early voting opened in Texas, then had to mail my absentee ballot the day I arrived in London. It was a huge pain but I was so determined to vote!
ReplyDeleteGood for you, Debs! I'll never in a million years understand those who could vote easily but simply don't bother to.
DeleteYay! And so agree, Julia!
DeleteMy first vote was in 1972 when legal age went from 21 to 18. I voted at all levels since.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I win, sometimes I lose but I take my responsibility at heart.
Exactly!
DeleteI voted in my first presidential election in 1972. I was newly married and living in Austin and thrilled to be able to vote there as the local powers-that-be fought for years against students voting in "their" town. Local politicians were really afraid of the student vote. Anyway my first big election and I didn't like either candidate. I held my nose and voted for Nixon as he was for getting out of Vietnam which quite bluntly we got sucked into when the Democrats were in power. No debates folks. I'm giving you my reason for voting that way at that time and I thought he was much more likely to be successful at it than McGovern. I mailed in my ballot a few weeks back and I will be so glad when it is over. The political ads here have been quite nasty at all levels. Election day has landed on my birthday again and I wish to crawl into a hole and emerge a few days later.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! We are hoping you get your wish to emerge happpier...xoxoo
DeleteI registered when I was still 17 because I would turn 18 on Election Day, so I literally voted the very first day I was eligible. I don't remember much about that first election, but I do remember one the following spring, when I took a few minutes out before reporting to study hall. There was a polling place in my high school's ag building, and we were holding a school board election. The high school principal stopped me as I headed toward a building I never had classes in. He wanted to know where I was going. I looked him square in the eye and said, "I'm going to vote for your bosses." There was nothing, legally, he could do to stop me, and I loved it.
ReplyDeletePERFECT! and..HA!
DeleteThe first election I voted in was Nov. 1972; I had turned 18 in September. I drove my mom to the polling place, as she was no longer driving. She had a double major in political science and journalism, and she taught all four of her kids the importance of voting. And I had a year of civics and history in eighth grade and American history with civics in Orange County CA public schools, in the late 60s-early 70s. It really needs to be taught still/again, but in the current political climate, I would worry about who is choosing the curricula. Re: Anderson or Carter, 1980 was the only time my spouse and I voted differently. She was standing on principle and I was “Don’t waste your vote!” I also got to participate in our Iowa caucus, and went as a delegate to our County Convention.
ReplyDeleteOh, fascinating! You must have some good inside stories. The Iowa caucuses--what a part of history!
DeleteHank, thanks for this topic today. We decided to go to the polls tomorrow. We plan to go at 6:00 am. I am still wondering if this is going to be such a good plan (projected 33 degrees at 6:00 in Connecticut tomorrow morning). Ask me tomorrow.
DeleteIn fact--that's exactly what I WILL ask! SO be prepared. And know this: We will ALL be there with you!
DeleteFirst voted in 1972. I was 19 and I voted for McGovern. Wasn’t there a bumper sticker that said” don’t blame me I am from Massachusetts “ cause most states went for Nixon? I have voted in every presidential election since then.
ReplyDeleteYES! There definitely was.
DeleteBumper stickers! "If you are not outraged then you haven't been paying attention."
DeletePerfect!
DeleteFirst voted in 1972. I was 19 and I voted for McGovern. Wasn’t there a bumper sticker that said” don’t blame me I am from Massachusetts “ cause most states went for Nixon? I have voted in every presidential election since then.
ReplyDeleteFirst voted in 1972. I was 19 and I voted for McGovern. Wasn’t there a bumper sticker that said” don’t blame me I am from Massachusetts “ cause most states went for Nixon? I have voted in every presidential election since then.
ReplyDeleteMine would be 1980--I voted for Carter's reelection. That did not go so well.
ReplyDeleteWhat strikes me is that you have some states that make it easy to vote, like California, and others that do not. We've had opt-in by mail voting for years--close to 70% of San Diegans already vote by mail. Now there are drop boxes everywhere. I took my ballot to the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park, because I wanted to celebrate voting and the arts--good things about this country.
It is extremely disturbing to observe that one political party's election strategy is (and has been for a number of years now) to disenfranchise as many voters as possible and make it harder, not easier, to vote. In the middle of a pandemic. If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about the difference between them, then I don't know what else will.
May I quote you, Lisa? If for no other reason, they just are no longer an example of American ideals.
DeleteYEs, exactly. Terrifying.
DeleteJUDY, absolutely! Sorry I missed your reply earlier.
DeleteI love hearing the voting stories. Makes me proud to live in a country where we get to vote - even if it doesn't always work out as we'd hoped.
ReplyDeleteSO agree, Jenn. These responses are so reassuring. But crossing fingers now.
DeleteLike so many, I am anxious about the election tomorrow. And I made a plan for voting. And last week, I was told that our parent company (Recorded Books) was allowing all employees paid time off to go and vote! Mid-morning tomorrow, I'll set out, charged Kindle and ID in hand, mask on face, to walk the block and a half to my poll and hang until I vote. Things have got to the point where companies are giving paid time to their employees to vote! I hope this is also the case for folks in generally lower paid positions because we all have to be together on this, however we decide!
ReplyDelete-MB
Hooray! Then come right back here and tell us all about it!
DeleteI was 21 in 1966 but don't think I voted the primary.. 1968 - What an election that was..I was expecting my 2nd son..
ReplyDelete