In honor of Ava -- Let's all tell our "First Vote" stories

[dawgmom]

Ava, that's very cool that you're so excited about voting. I find it truly touching, and it reminds me a lot of myself.

My first vote for President almost didn't happen. It was 1976, and Jimmy Carter was running against the incumbent President, Gerald Ford. I was in college about 180 miles from my hometown, and my absentee ballot never arrived. So, a friend and I borrowed a broken down heap of a car from somebody, skipped our afternoon classes, and drove North so I could vote. No WAY was I going to miss voting in my first Presidential election. I voted, and we turned right around and drove back to campus -- except the car broke down about halfway and we were stranded until nearly Midnight in some podunk little Indiana town, desperately trying to find out who had won the election. But you know....it was worth it, and I'd do it all over again.

[Lucian]

1. I don't have an exciting story.

I went and voted for Al Gore in 2000 after work, with my mom and dad. I lived in a small, rural town at the time and we had to vote in an old one room schoolhouse.

[dawgmom]

2. I think all the different polling places is one of the cool things about election day

When I was a kid, they used the basement of my small rural school as the local polling place. I remember that there was a sort of solemn and serious feeling at school on those days, and we had to be very quiet when we were coming and going from recess. It was almost like church. I can still remember the farmers in their bib overalls, standing in line on the stairs to vote. I think that experience really impressed me -- that this was something special and almost sacred.

[femmocrat]

3. George McGovern, 1972.

We just moved to a small town and I didn't know where to vote. I ran outside in my bare feet to ask the mailman and came down with a terrible cold.

We voted in a tiny little wooden building that actually had a potbelly woodstove in the center. We waited in line quite awhile. I carried my newborn into the polling booth with me. (I always took my kids in to vote with me!) We had those big old-fashioned voting machines... you pressed the lever to close the curtain, and when you were done voting, pushed it back to open the curtain.

Congratulations, Ava on your first election. You get to vote for a winner! :hi: :)

[dawgmom]

6. I love this story...it made me all misty

I loved this story. Thanks for sharing. Oh....and those old-fashioned machines with the curtains -- I remember those!!!! I wish they'd bring those back. There was something about that made the moment even more special, being enclosed in there with just your thoughts and the ballot in front of you. And that "whooosh/rattle" sound when the curtain slid back.

I love that you took your kids with you, too. That's one of my favorite things to see. And I'll bet they all vote, don't they!

[TZ]

4. I have sad memories of my first vote

I was at college, University of Maryland but registered at home (about 45 minutes away) however my grandfather had been getting sicker and sicker with congestive heart failure for about a year...By the time the election rolled around he was in a nursing home. I hadn't had a chance to see him in the home being at college. I came home to see him and vote. The night before I sat at his bedside and talked to him but he was comatose, or at least it seemed to me. The next day I voted for Dukakis and left to go back to the dorm. I found a message on my door when I got back..call home..Yes, my grandfather passed away about the same time I was voting..I think he waited until he could see me one last time...

[dawgmom]

8. Oh, hon...

...that's so sad. I'm sorry that those memories are forever linked for you.

*sigh* Obama's grandmother's death today really made me choke up -- just the unfairness of her not getting to see him win. But then I thought about it. How awful would it be for him to forever link her death and this election day together in his memory? Not that her death won't be on his mind, of course -- but maybe that's the only silver lining in it. Better today, than tomorrow.

Still sucks.

[Inchworm]

5. lol- mine is long but I'll be short

I actually voted for the first time when I was 17.

I screwed the local sherriff by taking something from him. He went light on me because he was the one who hunted me down for taking it. The stuff I took woulda sent him down teh river. I had already screwed with the system so much that they didnt really know how old I really was.

Then.. back at the ranch...

It came election time. It was very big around here at the time to have pig pickins to gather support. Me, being the dude I am, had the job to tend the fire at the event. I was in it for the beer. I had no idea what the big deal was... til I saw the sherriff shaking hands. I was already "happy" and my fire thing had got to the point where I barely had to do anything.

He saw me and quickly came and stated his speal. I shook his hand. We drank. I turned him on to a lil jar full of stuff I had. Times were good.

I actually thought that was cool. He got my vote.

:hi:

PS: there is sooo much more to that story :D

[dawgmom]

10. I'll just bet there is.

But on another note...the voting young thing made me think of that moment in "The Breakfast Club" when they're looking at the Geek kid's fake ID, and they ask him "What do you need a fake ID for anyway?" and he says "So I can vote" -- without even batting at eye. I loved him so much at that moment.

[Connonym]

7. I was 18, sooooooo in love that I let my boyfriend talk me into the unthinkable

I voted for Ronald Reagan. I was really a dumb fuck at 18. I've never voted R since.

[dawgmom]

11. Noooooooooooo!!!!!!

Oh, that's ghastly.

We all do terrible things when we're young, especially in the name of love. But really....I feel so much better now about that time I shaved completely for that one guy I was seeing. The terrible itching as it grew back cannot have been worse than the remorse you felt afterwards about voting for Reagan.

;)

[Aristus]

9. I don't want to. My first vote was for George Bush Sr.

:hide::blush::banghead::grr::mad::nuke:

[dawgmom]

13. Good Gawd...it's Confession Night in the Lounge

Say three hail Marys and call me in the morning. hehehehe

[Aristus]

15. I was a stupid kid who didn't know any better!

Probably explains the Republican mind-set... B-)

[Dystopian]

43. Thank you!

:rofl:

peace~

[leftyclimber]

12. Bill Clinton, 1992.

I was 17 in 1988, so I had to sit there and watch everyone go to the polls without me. I was PISSED. :mad:

So '92 rolled around, saw Bill speak at my campus twice, walked over to my polling place, and cast my vote. Nothing terribly exciting, except for the feeling of "Hooray! I finally got to vote for a president!"

In a lot of ways I'm more excited about this election. Escaping from the Reagan years was certainly a relief, but escaping the last eight is going to be even better.

We're achieving escape velocity, folks! Off we go into ORBIT!

-excited and somewhat older lefty

[yellowdogintexas]

14. OK. Mine was in Kentucky, for circuit court judge in March 1967. I had turned 18

the previous October; in Kentucky 18 year olds had the vote since 1952 (I think, maybe 1956).

So I was home from college on spring break and cast my first vote for a dear family friend for Circuit Court Judge. He won. He remained in that position until he retired sometime in the late 1980's.

Many years later, he performed our marriage ceremony.


I voted absentee for Humphrey in 1968 for my first presidential election.

[dawgmom]

16. I loved Hubert Humphrey

I'm jealous. I would have loved to have had an opportunity to vote for him.

[SeattleGirl]

17. Carter-Reagan, 1980. Not a fun story.

I was living in Oregon at the time. My polling place was the grade school next door to my house. Just as I pulled into the driveway, the announcement came over the radio that Carter had conceded, and this was THREE HOURS before the polls closed on the west coast.

I was so angry. I went and voted for Carter anyway, but it just felt like a useless gesture.

Reagan did blow Carter out of the water that year, and I know that even if Carter had held off in his concession until after all the polls had closed, he would still have lost. But what I lost that day was the feeling that my vote counted at all. I felt disenfranchised and angry.

To this day, voting is very very important to me; not only my vote, but everybody's vote. We should all have the right to vote without interference, and without have the outcome told to us before we even get our chance to vote.

Ava, I'm so excited for you, and I hope that your experience is much better than my first voting experience was for me.

[dawgmom]

19. I remember that...it sucked for people on the West Coast

I'm so glad they don't ever call the election now until all the polls are closed.

I'm also sorry that was your first experience.

[SeattleGirl]

27. It sure did.

I think that was the election that changed things, and forced the media to (somewhat) keep their traps shut until all the polls were closed.

[leftyclimber]

23. I remember that, although I was a few elections away from voting yet.

I grew up in Oregon, and my mom always took me to vote with her when I was a kid. Every national election she'd complain that her vote didn't count because they always called the election before the polls closed in Oregon, and every national election she'd go and vote anyway.

[dawgmom]

24. And that...

...is why I love this country.

Sorry, but I get all misty and emotional about voting. It's the nearest thing to "sacred" that I have in my life. That's why I can't talk about 2000 and Florida without frothing at the mouth.

[leftyclimber]

26. No need to be sorry -- voting is cool!

I'm glad I was raised that voting is important. I don't think either of my parents has missed an election since they were old enough to vote. And I have a brother, so the two of us pinko lefties cancel the 'rents out (they're, um, of that other party). It's all good. :evilgrin:

[SeattleGirl]

29. I feel the same way, dawgmom.

It is sacred to me, too.

[SeattleGirl]

28. Yep, it was really bad.

I know the media is based on the east coast, but jeezily crow, the rest of us have a right to vote too!

[no name no slogan]

18. My first vote: Mike Dukakis, 1988

I hooked up with the Dukakis campaign back in the fall of 1987, during my freshman year of college. I helped organize a 2,500-student college campus and two precincts in town, and worked my way up through the caucus system all the way to alternate delegate to the state convention.

Even though Dukakis lost, my precincts went strong Democratic in a very Republican part of the state. In fact, we helped elect one of my professors (Don Ostrom) to a seat in the state house, defeating a horrible fundy-con who later got the GOP nomination for governor (a guy named Al Quist).

During that campaign, another politically active PoliSci professor came over from a neighboring college and helped us organize the campus and town for Professor Ostrom. He really inspired the students, and energized us to win the election for Democrats. This professor was Paul Wellstone. He was a great inspiration, a compassionate leader, a fantastic mentor, and also a good friend.

Two years later, Paul went on to get the DFL endorsement for Senate (I was there, as a delegate on the floor for all seven ballots). And the rest is history.

[dawgmom]

20. Thanks for sharing this

A good friend of mine was a student of Wellstone's when he taught at Carleton College. I still remember the election night she called me and said, "Hey, one of my Poli Sci profs got elected to the Senate tonight!" She really loved him, as I think everybody who ever encountered him did.

I wish he were here to see tomorrow, and I so hope that Franken takes back his seat.

[no name no slogan]

25. Thanks! Paul was a remarkable man...

I actually live a block from where he was living in St Paul when he died. He had an amazing way of remembering people, no matter how far back he saw them. We weren't close, and he had no reason to know me from Adam, but every time I saw him after 1990 he always remembered me from the 1988 campaign. :)

And last I heard Franken was up 4%, which was within the margin of error. But I'm very very hopeful that Al will win. :thumbsup:

[Inchworm]

31. *cheer*

I was involved in that one too!

:hi:

[Dystopian]

39. Ah Dukakis : )

My son's name was on the voter list instead of his father's ....strange, Jonas was only six. But he went in the booth with his father and voted. He didn't vote again until 2004, and we're going together tomorrow with my grandson ....my grandson will follow in my son's footsteps...He's ten, it's going to become a family tradition..
Little kids casting ballots is what democracy is all about:o


peace~

[elshiva]

21. Al Gore 2000, I was 18.

I voted at my brother's old high school, this was before we switched to another polling place (we had just moved, we had to get another place to vote, different county). It was nice, though, that I got to vote at his old school. Nothing particularly exciting about that story, but it was exciting for me to be able to vote.

:)

[dawgmom]

22. Not to be trite, but....

...you never forget your first time.

It's twue, it's twue.

[elshiva]

30. It is so true.

It's not trite at all. :) :hug:

[dawgmom]

32. Did you see that we thought of the "I am engorged" copycat at the same time?

Kind of spooky. Twisted minds must think alike. heheehehe

[elshiva]

34. Yeah. I saw that.

:) :hug:

[rockymountaindem]

33. About ten days ago I sat at my table and filled out my absentee ballot

while on the phone with my mom so we could share in the moment and also talk about how to vote on Colorado's many ballot issues.

[dawgmom]

35. Yay Colorado! Go Blue! n/t

[LadyoftheRabbits]

36. Tomorrow, hopefully

:bounce: I missed the last major election by a year. :party:

[dawgmom]

37. Yeah...I had to wait two years for my first Presidential, too

Enjoy your first time. It's a sacred thing.

[LadyoftheRabbits]

42. I aim to

I'll have a bunch of IDs, everything so they don't turn me away. :P

[rockymountaindem]

38. I missed it by less than a week =(

[LadyoftheRabbits]

40. Dupe

[LadyoftheRabbits]

41. Ooh, that sucks

x(

[rockymountaindem]

44. I made up for it though

When I met Sen. Kerry recently I told him how bad I felt for missing it by four days and he just laughed it off. I guess he doesn't blame me.

[Dystopian]

45. My first vote....

In the primaries for the Reverend Jesse Jackson :D
I don't remember if I voted for president...
That's all I remember and don't remember...

Ava, get pictures!! Enjoy!

peace~

[mulsh]

46. 1976 =Carter

I turned 18 the previous year and my buddy and I registered to vote at the local fire house where his father was chief. the crew made a big fuss over us.

Our local polling place was in our neighbor's basement. for years on election day he'd ask me if I had "done my duty?" and for years I'd had to explain that I wasn't old enough. That year I was able to finally tell him. "of course I voted." He was very happy and took me out in his garden where we had a little wine and some anti pasta.the next election I brought him a bottle of wine. vote then have some wine remained our little tradition until he died a few years ago.

[dawgmom]

49. What a lovely story

Thanks for sharing it. (And 76 was my first election too!)

[sazemisery]

61. Carter in 1976

Voted during boot camp @ Ft. McClellan, Alabama.

[jobycom]

47. 1984--Walter Mondale. It was the proudest moment of my life, voting against Reagan.

I felt like a knight wading into battle against the racist, murdering monster.

[dawgmom]

50. Yup. It's a badge of honor

Yes. It's a badge of honor to be able to say that I voted twice against Reagan, and twice against W.

And I was right all four times.

[Zomby Woof]

48. Dukakis in 1988

Voted for Paul Simon on Super Tuesday 1988 in Virginia, then moved to Washington state that summer. It was discouraging to lose, but nothing compared to 2000 or 2004. I would have been crushed if those were my first elections. Not that it was easy for the veterans.

[dawgmom]

51. Agreed. I don't know how people who worked for the first time in 2000 or 2004 survived it

It would have been crushing. It was hard enough for me, and I was a veteran.

[ceile]

52. My first vote was local

My boss at the time took me down to the elementary school down in my district and I voted for who know's what. But I do know I voted for the mayor that day (Kirk Watson) very liberal, and now he's a Rep. But it was on Scantron/TAAS/SAT bubble....fill in the bubble....

[fizzgig]

53. it was 1999, so nothing big going on

and the only thing i can remember was a tax increase for interstate repairs. but i was so proud when i did it.

the cool part was that the polling place was at my old junior high school and i saw my civics teacher when i was coming in :D

[CreekDog]

54. My first presidential was in 1992 for Bill Clinton.

went to the firehouse in South San Francisco that election day morning on a warm, crystal clear morning.

funny thing about that vote, it was almost anticlimactic. it's really when the decision on a candidate is made that i remember most clearly and fondly. the actual vote itself comes well after that, typically. :shrug:

[Ava]

55. so neat reading everyone's stories!!

i'll post mine tomorrow :woohoo:

[TimeChaser]

56. I missed the 2004 election by TWO DAYS

So this is my first election. I voted today :)

[billyoc]

57. A cautionary tale...

I filled out an absentee ballot, shivering between iceberg lookout watches in the Arctic Ocean.
Yes, Ava, they had icebergs back then.

The year was 1980, and I voted for Reagan, who promised pay raises for the military.
I would have voted for him if he just gave me some warm fucking socks. :scared:

Six months later I was in prison as a result of Reagan's Zero Tolerance on smoking dope.
It was real warm in the prison, though. :rofl:

[Critters2]

58. I voted for Ford.

I know.

[Bryan]

59. It was 1996.

Consensus opinion held that Bill Clinton had it nailed, but I wanted to cast my first vote for him anyway, going so far as to dress up in a suit for the occasion. My younger brother accompanied me down to the elementary school, and one of the poll workers mistook him for my son. This irked me at the time, but in retrospect it may have been the first time a stranger took me for an adult.

[Jamastiene]

60. It was in November of 1988.

My 18th birthday wasn't until August of 1988, so I did not get to vote in the primaries that year. We were stuck with Dukakis. I voted for him, of course. There was no way in a month of green hells I was going to vote for Poppy. Had I been old enough to vote in the primaries, I would have voted for Jessie Jackson. He was the one I liked best that year.

Believe it or not, I couldn't stand Al Gore (I know, blasphemy) back then. Back then, Al Gore was a right wing fundy type who hung out with Fred Phelps and left a bad bad taste in my mouth. I had no clue whatsoever I would be voting for him as Veep in '92 and '96 then for President in 2000. If anyone had told me that in 1988, I would have cold cocked them then laughed at them as they writhed in agony and said, "There is just no fucking way that'll ever happen..."

[Drunken Irishman]

62. Compared to you, my story sucks.

It was 2004, my first presidential election. I remember not knowing what to expect, but I went and voted for Kerry with both my parents (had taken the day off from school to read up on the election). When I came home, I spent the entire day online reading about those damned leaked exit polls. I remember telling my mom and we were optimistic (the first time the entire general campaign where I felt we kinda had a shot).

I remember election night. Since we're in the west, it starts early here (polls closed at 5). We sat at the kitchen table, I was extremely nervous, and my hope was that North Carolina would be too close to call. I knew if that was the case, it meant the exit polls were right. I remember we were watching MSNBC and their Chris Matthews began to deliver the states and sure enough, North Carolina was too close to call. It was all down hill from there.

Not this time!

[RoyGBiv]

63. 19 Years ...

Voted for Dukakis. Wore my black overcoat and carried by briefcase into the polling location. Yes, I was/am a bit of a geek.

The more interesting thing about it, for me, is what I did on my birthday, June 15th, of that year.

My grandma had always been political. She was a feminist before the word really existed. She'd always voted.

My mom never had.

The day I turned 18, I got up, went to where my mom worked during her lunch hour, got her and drove down to the county registrar, and got her to register with me.

And on election day, I walked with her to the polling place, which was right across the street from her house. I mean, it was literally across the street, less than 50 yards from her front door.

We both voted for the first time that day. I was 19. She as 31.

I'll never forget it.

I actually voted the year before in a local, special election shortly after I registered and of course in the primaries. But the first Presidential vote I cast with my mother is the one I count.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

64. I don't recall when they changed the voting age to 18, but it was

too late for me, so I cast my first ballot at age 22. I was enrolled in a post-graduate Japanese language program, so my first vote was an absentee ballot on which I voted for George McGovern.

[T_i_B]

65. When I was little

My dad took me into the polling booth with him and got me to go ineeie meeie meinie mo on the ballot paper!

[quakerboy]

66. HEaLL no

Ive blocked it out. Not sure, I really cannot remember, but I think I dun a bad thing.

[Random_Australian]

67. 2007. Slimeball rightwinger versus centre-left.

The voting was nothing special; of course I voted (as voting is compulsory), but the night, watching the results come in really was something special.

On the news, early in the counting process -

Leftwinger: "We could be looking at something like 83 seats"(that is a huge and unreasonable number)

Host: "Woah, now hold on. I don't think we can call such a dramatic result so early in the counting process"


And then they did. They ended up with 83 seats in the House of Representatives and 32 seat in the senate.

The icing on the cake? With Mr RW Slimeball in charge, Australia and America were the only two nations not to ratify the kyoto protocol.

"Rudd's first official act, on his first day in office, was to sign the instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol."

We won, bitches, we won. :)

Also,
"Plans are under way for the withdrawal of Australian troops from the Iraq War"

"In late January, Rudd announced funding for homeless persons, including $150 million in emergency accommodation"

"Rudd announced that Quentin Bryce would become the first female Governor-General of Australia."

Not that he's perfect, but that is some of the nicer things he's done.

[lizerdbits]

68. Clinton in 1992

I voted absentee since I was at an out of state college in Mississippi. Watching TV in the lobby with all the RWingers I was surrounded by when the results came in was great. They were cheering with a whimper when Bush got states like Utah while me and the BF were snickering (he was also liberal and from Arkansas).

[LSdemocrat]

69. My first vote period was in a special election against a conceal/carry law here in MO

My first presidential vote was in 2000, when I voted for Gore.

[sniffa]

70. I sent my absentee ballot in for Bob Dole

:hide:

[Maine-ah]

71. My Father took me for my first vote

We both voted for Clinton, I was a jr. in high school, and it was Clinton's first election. I will miss my father greatly today, he would have enjoyed this election. Here's to you Dad! :toast: :hug:

[av8rdave]

72. Mine went like this...

I was a newly registered voter in 1976. Voted for Jimmy Carter in the Md primary. By the general election, I was a newly minted cadet at the Air Force Academy. I voted Ford in the general election. I was politically to the right at the time, for no better reason than that's what my parents taught me. I registered as a Dem because I thought it would be better to influence who the "other" candidate was.

I continued to vote Republican throughout my military years. Again, it was for no better reason than being too wrapped up in my own world and voting the way most of my peers did. It wasn't until my second year in the civilian world, after voting for Bush the elder in '88 that I realized what a mistake I made. I remained a registered Democrat and have proudly voted Democratic in every general election since.

OK, I'll admit...I did vote for one Republican this election. Our County Tax Assessor/Collector was running unopposed. She's had the job for years and has never messed up my auto registrations.

[mwooldri]

73. First vote: 1997.

I missed the 1992 election by months (it was in April, I was born November).

We don't vote for Prime Ministers directly... I voted Liberal Democrat (Margaret Sharp). Unfortunately I lived in a Conservative constituency. There was a local election running too, so that was voted for as well.

Paper ballots - two colours for the two races. Simply mark an X by the candidate you want to represent you. Stuff it in the box. No showing ID, just going to the table, stating your name and address, and that was it really.

[tjwmason]

76. I missed '97 by a few months

I was by far the most politically aware person at school, and whilst most of my year (the Upper VI) could vote I was still 17 for a couple of months more.

My first vote was a local government by-election in October '97. There was none of the usual ceremony as I was then away at university and voted by post.

[RebelOne]

74. My first vote was for JFK in Miami, FL. n/t

[PVnRT]

75. I first voted in 1996, for Clinton

But it was in Indiana, so it probably didn't count. My polling place back then was a small airport that mostly did private flights and flying lessons north of town.

As for this year, I just moved to Kentucky, so I decided to drive four and a half hours back home a few weeks ago to vote early in Indiana.

[crispini]

77. I vividly remember the first time my mom took me to vote.

I don't recall which election, but there were those big lever machines and the curtain and it was a very thrilling experience.

The first time I voted "for real" was in the 1988 Democratic primary. I was in college and I walked over to the gym at the stadium nearby. They didn't have those cool machines anymore. I was disappointed. I cast my vote proudly for Jesse Jackson!

Wow, 20 years later, here we are.

[all.of.me]

78. My 18 year old voted absentee for the first time yesterday!

I went over the ballot with her on the phone, and she has to get it postmarked today. Very exciting! That ballot did not come in her mail until yesterday! We were freakin' out. But all's well.

My first (and last, until this year) was in 1984 for Mondale and Ferraro. I wasn't very political at the time, but the prospect of a woman in the White House was great. I was so naive. At 30.

But what really pissed me off was that one guy I voted for for town council or something (I don't even remember) got elected. It was a very small town, a few thousand people, where everyone knew everyone else intimately or you were related. He was one of those charismatic types that everyone loved. He was slated to be the next governor (NH). He'd come into the diner where I worked and chat us all up. He was great. Except that he then embezzled $16,000 out of our hiway fund for his coke habit. I was really disillusioned and stayed far far away from politics until this incredibly crucial year.

My other daughter is 14 and will be able to vote next time. :)