These young adults are riding the blue wave?? like professional surfers.
Today is our first #TurnoutTuesday! Knock on 25 doors in your community and help them register to vote! Plus voting feels great. Just ask these guys ↓ pic.twitter.com/8yQOR4preA
— March For Our Lives (@AMarch4OurLives) October 2, 2018
When was your first time?
Jerzy Russian
I signed my first voter registration card in the summer 1986 in the backseat of a dodge station wagon.
zhena gogolia
Uh-oh, they stole that from Putin’s 2012 campaign
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLA90bAr6jo
narya
Presidential election, 1976. Voted for Carter and have never regretted that vote.
Mike E
My first vote was for incumbent Dem Bob Edgar in ’82, in the district just outside of Philadelphia that became infamous for getting redrawn so egregiously that it resembled Pluto kicking Goofy’s ass
Jerzy Russian
Getting back to the topic at hand, it 1986 or 1987 I took a political science course to satisfy some part of the general education requirement. The professor spent the whole class one day pointing out the piss poor voting records of college students. So people have been trying to get that message across for quite some time. I hope it sticks this time.
Heidi Mom
1972, for McGovern. Proud to say that I was in a fraternity house (Sigma Chi) but once, and that was because the student organizer for the local McGovern campaign was holding a meeting there.
NotMax
A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
WaterGirl
My first time was 1972 when I voted for Nixon. My friend Robin Atlas told me all about Watergate, but I didn’t believe her because I was sure we would be hearing about it everywhere if that had really happened.
Shortly after the election I realized what an idiot I had been. I was an avid follower of Watergate and I have been a Democrat since that time.
Robin, wherever you are, I am very sorry.
Mike in NC
Turned 18 in ’72 and voted against Tricky Dick.
scav
Lost in the mists of time but it would have been as soon as possible.
But, gravity still apparently works so some degree: Global image of US is historically bad under Trump, says poll. And we managed that with some seriously strong competition!
Because of course.
Gozer
2000 for Gore.
Never regretted the vote, but my god has politics been rough for my cohort.
Al Z.
Dukakis 1988. Why remind me?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Hubert Humphrey in 1968. I have a long history of voting for losing Democrats. My wins are Carter, Clinton, and Obama.
PsiFighter37
Kerry in 2004. That was a tough one, but did not feel anywhere as bad as 2016 was.
Spanky
McGovern in ’72. I’d just turned 18 in June and it was the first election 18 year olds could vote, so I sure as hell did!
Mike R
First time 1968, absentee ballot from southeast Asia, in primary election. Was kind of cool, as I recall the ballot was pretty smudged with dirt after completion.
BC in Illinois
Montgomery County MD (5miles away from G’town Prep, but in a different world)
1964 – Youth for Goldwater, handed out literature at the polls 7am – 7pm
. . . moved away from the right . . .
1966 – handed out literature for Spiro Agnew. (He was the “moderate” candidate.)
. . . moved further left . . .
1968 – attended Poor People’s March “Solidarity Day”
. . . At age 19, still too young to vote. . . .
1970 – registered as a Democrat, amazed the local poll workers.
(I told them I was too young to be a Republican.)
1972 – First presidential vote. McGovern. And proud of it.
Ajabu
Being in the oldest demographic here, my first vote was in 1964 for LBJ. (Yes, I know – but for me and mine the Civil Rights bill superseded the Asian fuckup).
And I can proudly say I have never even been tempted to vote for a Republican. Not once, for anything.
A record I will maintain to the grave.
LAO
I love this ad. Unabashedly loved it.
BC in Illinois
@WaterGirl:
That reminds me. I used to argue at Belt Jr. High School with Rita M______ , who was appalled at my Youth for Goldwater days. She was right.
Rita, wherever you are, I’m sorry.
gene108
1992 NC Democratic primary, when I was 17 and still in high school. I voted for Paul Tsongas. Forget what about him appealed to me, but he was my first choice.
Voted for Clinton in the general, after I turned 18 and went off to college.
Back then, they were registering high school seniors to vote in the high school. They were calling seniors into the library and a couple of ladies had voter registration cards and helped us fill it out. I’m not sure, I’d have bothered to register to vote, if it wasn’t for that program.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
1976 presidential elections. I didn’t have a party affiliation that first time so I don’t think I voted in primaries. Alas, I voted for Ford. I was an enthusiastic Carter supporter by 1980.
@WaterGirl: I voted for Nixon in 1968. In my defense, I was a 10-year-old and it was a straw poll in school. I remember writing in my essay that it was because he was for gun control. I don’t remember why I thought that, or why in my limited awareness of politics that was important to me.
satby
Jimmy Carter. I turned 18 in 1973 so missed the chance to vote against Tricky Dick.
And for people in Santa Cruz, CA: I found out a kid from the neighborhood and old friend of my oldest son is another young activist who has jumped into politics. Justin Cummings for city council.
BlueGirlFromWyo
1990 first Congressional, 1992 first Presidential. Have only voted GOP once in each. Regretted them both and it will never happen again.
trollhattan
@Mike in NC:
Bingo. First cohort of 18YOs who could vote and registered for the draft and to vote simultaneously. It really focused the mind on the “why” of voting. I, however, squandered my vote on Dr. Spock. Take THAT, people in charge!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
5/06/14. Primary election. Nothing special but I was disappointed when the General that fall turned out so badly for the Democrats. Then 2016 happened. I haven’t had much luck voting. Hopefully 2018 and 2020 will be different
waratah
@NotMax: Seems like that to me, I had to wait to become a citizen first.
I love the ad.
zhena gogolia
@LAO:
I’d like it much better if Putin hadn’t done it first, sorry. Leaves a very bad taste.
evap
Jimmy Carter. I turned 18 in the summer of 1976 and voted for the first time that November. It was thrilling! Heck, I still get a thrill out of voting after all of these years.
I lived in Spain 2002-3 and didn’t bother to vote in the Nov 2002 election. My permanent home was in Georgia and that was the year that Georgia went from being a blue state to a red state. I was horrified — it never occurred to me that Georgia would elect a Republican governor. So I have made it a point to vote in every election since then!
NotMax
@Ajabu
Nothing about which to feel so much as a twinge of chagrin.
a) it was a vote in homage to JFK
b) in ’64, Viet Nam was still a simplistic Manichaean concept for the bulk of the general public
c) his opponent was Goldwater, ferchrissake.
delk
1980 for Carter.
Matt McIrvin
I was eligible to vote (absentee) in the 1986 midterm, but don’t actually remember doing that until later. First one I remember was 1988: I voted for Dukakis and my primary vote was actually in person, when I was home for spring break. There was a crude electronic voting machine with a membrane touch panel and LEDs that lit up.
Kraux Pas
2002 for Jill Stein for Governor of MA. And a slate of Republican challengers because I was mad at Ted Kennedy about his actions on Cape Wind and Stephen Lynch for…Stephen Lynch. Also, this was my only vote cast as a registered Democrat so figure that out.
“Romney is a moderate” they said. “It doesn’t matter.”
Never made those mistakes again.
david
Amazon announced a $15/hr minimum wage for all its US employees.
Kraux Pas
@Kraux Pas: For the record, my first vote I ever felt truly invested in was Obama in the 2008 primaries.
--bd
Voting – 1982 Michigan Gubernatorial Primary – Zolton Ferency.
Activity – Poll watcher / Challenger for Gary Hart – Michigan Democratic Caucus, 1984. I, a 20 year old college kid shows up for Hart, and about five or so stereotypical UAW guys show up for Mondale. We actually got along well. We all made sure that the ballots were filled out correctly (you had to check a box at the bottom for an affidavit saying that you were a Democrat), then review the count at the end of the day. No shenanigans at all.
Brachiator
Well, some weeks after my high school prom, this young lady and I…oh wait.
I think my first votes were in a California primary or for a local city election. But before that I worked the phones and walked and put campaign literature on doors when Dr Julian Nava ran for the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. My history teacher encouraged this. Maybe I got extra credit. But it was kinda cool.
TaMara (HFG)
@zhena gogolia: Get over it. The target audience DOES NOT CARE. And neither do I
Matt McIrvin
(I think a major factor in low youth voter participation is just that so many kids go off to college right when they become eligible. In many districts the locals try their hardest to prevent college students from voting locally, and absentee voting takes additional planning and also assumes that one will follow local politics in a possibly faraway place where local issues don’t affect you directly.)
Raven
Many here have heard this. I came home from Vietnam Sept 3, 1969 , two months shy of my 20th. I could not vote until Nov 1970. I don’t miss.
joel hanes
1972 for McGovern.
Cast my ballot absentee, because I had to report for draft induction on 3 Nov.
For two years before that, I’d been walking in anti-Viet-Nam-war protests, helping put out an alternative newspaper, helping organize my high school’s observation of the Moratorium.
Raven
@joel hanes: I walked in them when I came home, in my fatigues.
Anonymous At Work
Like most, it was in college, I was experimenting and there were cute girls and peer pressure involved.
Young Democrats know how to play to their strengths.
FlipYrWhig
I was just weeks too young to vote for Dukakis ’88 so my first presidential election must have been Clinton ’92. (I don’t remember voting in ’90 for Congress or anything of that nature–and I would have been in the midst of college anyway.) But I have no memory of the experience.
Raven
Waiting for the mri report.
FelonyGovt
1972, for McGovern, after I’d stuffed envelopes for his campaign. I’ve voted in almost every election since.
Mike R
@Raven: Same here, one of the guys I would go with still had a drain in a wound that wouldn’t heal. We loved taunting the YAF(young americans for freedom), They were rah rah for the war but loved their deferments, the original let me hold your coat while you and him fight crowd.
Yutsano
1992. Ross Perot. Don’t judge me. I admit I was stupid now.
Doug R
I worked in a campaign in 1975 when I was 13.
NotMax
@Yutsano
Entirely curiosity – what made him attractive to you? Especially after the ‘I’m out, no I’m back in again’ stuff.
Tom Levenson
Jimmy Carter , 1776. Canvassed that fall for the Good Father — Robert Drinan, SJ — in Fitchburg, MA. Rep. Drinan was a great congressman.
cain
My first time was in 1996 for Bill Clinton. I was 27. Here’s another thing, I’ve never voted any other way than by vote by mail. I don’t know how I could do it any other way. :D
NotMax
@Tom Levenson
And then the church wagged a wizened ringed finger and dictated his holding elective office a no-no.
Spanky
CNN reports:
Spanky
@Tom Levenson:
WOW!
zhena gogolia
@TaMara (HFG):
I’m sorry, but an entire country was enslaved by someone with this message — and then he took over our country too. It does matter. Maybe if people cared a little more about what goes on in other countries we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Lalophobia
I feel ripped off somehow. I called into a radio show after my first vote and made a quip about how you “never forget your first time” because I am cheesy trash like that. And now it’s a Get Out The Vote theme. With superheroes.
cain
@Raven:
Yikes, I hope all is well or becomes well.
frosty
I know I’ve said this before, but Obama wasn’t my first POC vote for President and Hillary wasn’t my first woman.
Shirley Chisholm, California primary, June ‘72. Because McGovern wasn’t liberal enough.
Spanky
And now for something completely different, and great!
(Although the 55 year gap ain’t so great.)
R-Jud
1998 midterms, as a college student. My grandmother sent me an early birthday card telling me to register. :-)
Doug R
@zhena gogolia: ….Putin’s ad has a different format. Obama did it first https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6G3nwhPuR4
Jeffro
Before voting, heck before I even a teenager…I remember annoying the shit out of my parents back in ’76, telling them how much nicer that Mr. Carter seems than Mr. Ford. LOL
Sadly, my first actual presidential vote was for GHW Bush (but hey it was a close call and also, OBVIOUSLY, I didn’t know jack/squat back then).
Haven’t voted for a Republican at any level since then. Only abstained from voting for the Democrat at one level, one time, when the guy (coughcountyexecutivecough) was an obvious crook.
It seems like my intensity for politics and loathing of the Republicans goes up 50% every election cycle. I thought that in ’92, ’96, and especially ’00 that my antipathy for them couldn’t get any higher. Hoo boy was I ever wrong…
raven
Results of the MRI, in the words of the Doc. “As good as it could be”. No tumor, no stroke, nuttin so charge ahead!
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Indeed. I thought ignorance trumps knowledge is the R creed.
Ladyraxterinok
1st vote was in 64. It massively angered me that I couldn’t vote in 60 when all my fellow college seniors could. Voting age then was 21.
raven
@Mike R: Great story, a buddy of mine, big African American dude and a rugger was in a face of with, I swear, Larry Nazimek of the YAF. My pal dipped his shoulder and hit him with an uppercut that lifted the jerk off the ground. The local newspaper took a picture of what looked like Nazimek hitting my friend just as he fired and the caption was “YAF member beats a defenseless Negro”! Man he never lived that shit down!
A Ghost To Most
Jimmy Carter, 1976.
When dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
But her emails!!!
@Tom Levenson:
This must have really confused the Continental Congress. Is that why you don’t show up in any of the paintings and illustrations?
satby
@raven: yay!
A Ghost To Most
@raven: FIDO.
Good news.
zhena gogolia
@raven:
Oh, I’m so glad! Was worrying.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@raven: Yay!
Martin
Because California has adopted Oregon’s automatic voter registration, that means that individuals would normally be picked up as early as 16. To accommodate this, California has create a pre-registration system for 16 and 17 year olds that they get dumped into before they turn 18. Young people that don’t have their licenses can also manually pre-register. When they turn 18, they’ll be automatically registered to vote.
The state has pre-registered nearly half a million 16 and 17 year olds.
Since Trump was elected, Dems in CA have added almost a million registered voters, as has no party affiliation. The GOP has lost about 300K. Things have looked bleak for the GOP in CA ever since Obama was elected, but Trump is just making it so much worse.
NotMax
Trivia:a forgotten run by a female candidate, endorsed by Harvard.
Elizabelle
@raven: Yea! Could it have just been the heat?
Martin
@Martin: Oh, and only 9% of registered republicans in the state are 34 and under. 57% are 55 and older. For every 6 republicans that die, only one gets added. That’s fatal to a party.
ruemara
Next year, I guess
Martin
Oh, and California passed a law this year that vote by mail envelopes are prepaid – so no failing to vote because you can’t find a stamp.
Martin
Oh, and I miss the edit button.
Manyakitty
1986 midterms. One of our history teachers was a registrar, and he caught as many of us as he could.
rikyrah
Republicans reach the ‘triage’ stage of the 2018 midterm election cycle
10/02/18 10:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Ask party officials at the various campaign committees about their expectations in any given race, and in nearly every instance, you’ll hear a stock answer. If they expect to win, partisans will say something like, “_____ is running a great race, and we feel good about his/her chances.” If they expect to lose, they’ll say, “It’s an uphill climb, but we think _____ is going to surprise people on Election Day.”
It’s why I think it’s best not to even bother asking party officials what they expect to see happen. Instead, I find it far more useful to follow the money. Slate reported yesterday:
NotMax
Was taken into the voting booth as a child and told which levers to push, so voted (in a sense) well before the legal age.
raven
@Elizabelle: No, like our sisters, it persists! The Doc aptly pronounced it”The medical term idiopathic comes from Greek roots: idios, or “one’s own,” and pathos, “suffering” or “disease.” The literal meaning is something like “adisease of its own,” or an illness that isn’t connected to any particular cause.”
“!
MGB
My first vote was in 1996 absentee Michigan ballot for Bill Clinton. Though technically, I was 7 in 1984, my mom took me with her to vote, and she let me punch the card for Mondale.
TaMara (HFG)
@zhena gogolia:
@schrodingers_cat:
Happy now? He stole it from us. The concern trolling is incredible. These kids are doing a great thing. If you can’t support them, you’re part of the problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6G3nwhPuR4
TaMara (HFG)
@NotMax: I actually remember my mom taking me into the curtain voting booth while she voted for Nixon. We haven’t seen eye to eye since. :-)
Tokyokie
@raven: Great news! I was really worried about you from your initial report.
scav
Does voting for John Muir in the CA elemntary school practice ballots (we actually went to the volunteer fire dept too!) count?
Fair Economist
@rikyrah cites:
CO-6 is Democratic-leaning, but PA-17 is R+3 and KS-4 and MI-8 are R+4. R+3/R+4 is the midpoint of Congressional lean (due to gerrymandering), and basically the target we need to hit to take control. Republicans are *already* giving up on the kinds of districts which will give us control of the House.
prostratedragon
Yet another 1972/McGovern. I was excited to participate, even though the result was kind of an easy forecast. Sometimes you just have to raise your voice.
trollhattan
@Martin:
Yep, mine preregistered even before getting her learner’s permit. Rarin’ to go in 2020, I can tell you.
NotMax
@TaMara (HFG)
Totally OT and no wish to derail the thread
As a cook, did you happen to see this untoothsome tidbit in a yesterday thread?
Immanentize
@raven: Excellent. Continue raising hell.
Percysowner
1972 for McGovern. i drove around for years in a car with a bumper sticker saying “Nixon’s through in ’72’. I was off by 2 years. Since them I’ve missed a couple of primary elections, mostly after I moved and had zero idea of who the candidates were and one midterm election, before Ohio had early voting and when I had a temperature of 101 on voting day.
TaMara (HFG)
@NotMax: Link broken, try again.
schrodingers_cat
@TaMara (HFG): When gogol’s wife says something about Putin or Russia, I listen. I respect her professional expertise and deep knowledge of Russia. If that makes me a concern troll so be it.
Fair Economist
@Fair Economist: Correction: Cook has changed its leans from the last time I looked and now we can control the House just by taking some R+2 and everything more favorable. Some of it is Pennsylvania redistricting, but I don’t think that’s all. So actually, Republicans are giving up on races that most likely would only be padding our majority. That’s a really good place for us.
NotMax
@TaMara (HFG)
Oopsie.
Linky.
trollhattan
@scav:
My elementary school had ancient mechanical voting machines for our student elections, which made it a pretty neat experience–walk up, close the curtain, pull little levers for your candidate choices. IIRC opening the curtain recorded your votes and reset the machine, but it’s a murky memory. They seemed impossibly complicated, like enormous clockwork adding machines.
TaMara (HFG)
@NotMax: I can’t see it because I’m not a member, but I saw the title and NOPE, NOPE and NOPE!
raven
Thanks ya’ll. Given the possibilities I’ll take this every time and the encouragement to seek treatment was helpful
TaMara (HFG)
@schrodingers_cat: Well since no one has explained how this is somehow supporting Putin, I’ll stick with these amazing young adults. Oh, and the OFA team.
NotMax
@trollhattan
Yup. BIG to-do when a local school busing vote was held where attended high school. Someone had neglected to flip the control on some of the machines that connected the counters, so when those machines were opened after the polls had closed, ALL the voting tallies were zero.
khead
Bush 41 in ’92
Tokyokie
I turned 18 while living overseas in 1972, and one of the first things I did after getting back to the States to prepare to start college was register to vote. Because a friend who was a Republican gave me a ride to the elections office (he’s since come out gay and has run unsuccessfully as a liberal Democrat), I registered GOP. We were already well past the primary, and party affiliation didn’t affect voting in the general. Watergate was just starting to break in November 1972, and I thought that the Nixon administration’s response had been fishy, so I couldn’t vote for Tricky Dick. But McGovern’s handling of the Eagleton affair had been so incompetent, I thought his managerial abilities were negligible. And as those were my only two choices, I put a blank ballot into the box.
For years, I would try to find at least one Republican for whom I could vote. But the last one I voted for was a pharmacist who, about three weeks before the election, was charged with diverting some of his inventory to himself. (The meth-crazed pharmacist lost by about a 3-1 margin.) Anyway, that was 30 years ago, and since then, the only Republican for whom I’ve voted was a district court judge who had to change his party affiliation to ensure re-election, and who was the father of one of my best friends. In fact, I don’t vote a straight Democratic ticket because I’ll vote for the Green or Libertarian in some races in which the Democrats don’t field a candidate. (Wish La Raza Unida was still an option.)
TaMara (HFG)
I follow March for Our Lives on twitter, and they get threatened, targets photoshopped over their pictures, bullied, you name it. So if I seem a little hostile that this ad is getting criticized, that is why.
dexwood
@raven:
Good news. I was both amazed and alarmed by how quickly you saw neuro and got the MRI. A few weeks ago, my physician’s nurse asked me why I seem to be increasingly anxious when I visit her office. I said it’s because it seems the older you get, the closer you are to bad news one day. She laughed and said she couldn’t argue with that. I’m on the slide to 70 and expect that extra nervousness will continue.
raven
@dexwood: Yea, at 68 I know the feeling. We’re pretty lucky here in Athens with 2 hospitals and slew of specialists. They have an in-house MRI at the neuro and had cancellations for that and the visit so I know I’m lucky. That and insured
CaptJLP (formally Anotherlurker
@raven: It seems like there is more fishing, in your future!
dexwood
@raven:
Two things I wish we all had, luck and insurance. Time to walk my furry friends. Enjoy your day.
Mnemosyne
I did not vote I’m 1988 (the first presidential election where I was eligible) because there was some family chaos surrounding my going out of state to college that meant I didn’t have a permanent address )my parents were in the process of becoming snowbirds and had not committed to a state of residence). So my first vote was on an Arizona absentee ballot for Bill Clinton.
ruemara
@raven: Yay!
Immanentize
@frosty:
I would say your youthful indiscretion is much better than Kavanaughs….
Immanentize
@NotMax: Me too! I still have a nostalgic fondness for those old switch machines with the big pull lever to record your votes and pull back the curtain when you left the booth….
gene10
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
My first grade teacher, in 1980, did a vote of who we would vote for as President. One person voted for John Anderson, the rest of us voted for Carter, and no one voted for Reagan. And to be fair, I had never heard of Reagan, until my teacher put his name up on the chalk board. Reagan did a bad job getting his name recognition levels up for first graders. If only we could’ve voted…
I like Carter, as a little kid. He seemed nice.
gene108
:@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I voted for Nixon in 1968. In my defense, I was a 10-year-old and it was a straw poll in school.
My first grade teacher, in 1980, did a vote of who we would vote for as President. One person voted for John Anderson, the rest of us voted for Carter, and no one voted for Reagan. And to be fair, I had never heard of Reagan, until my teacher put his name up on the chalk board. Reagan did a bad job getting his name recognition levels up for first graders. If only we could’ve voted…
I like Carter, as a little kid. He seemed nice.
gene108
@gene108:
What I wouldn’t give for an edit button. First sentence should have been in block quotes.
zhena gogolia
@TaMara (HFG):
Okay, let me explain. The 2012 election in Russia (stolen, as usual) was a gigantic tragedy that gave rise to massive protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Those protests would be continuing to this day if the Russian government hadn’t passed severe measures making it virtually impossible to go onto the streets without risking imprisonment. The “it’s my first time” campaign, whoever did it first, was firmly associated with Putin in that campaign (how many people associate it with Obama? as I recall, the Lena Dunham ad was roundly panned; and Putin CAME FIRST, by the way https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/girls-dunhams-suggestive-first-time-obama-ad/). There is a heavy semantic weight to using it now, after what happened in 2012. People were weighing in here with their delight in this ad. For anyone following world events, using this slogan is tone-deaf. Sorry for expressing my opinion.
Kalimama
@–bd: Someone else who knows Zolten Ferency! I used to write his name in when I didn’t like any of the candidates.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
I do not tweet and have made no direct response to the MFOL people. I support them as much as anyone possibly could. That doesn’t mean I have to like this ad.
Villago Delenda Est
May, 1976. Oregon primary election. Cast my vote for Jerry “Governor Moonbeam” Brown.
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
I don’t say this lightly but … I think you’re overreacting a bit. It’s a pretty common meme for elections that Putin did not invent. It looks like they already mixed it up by having it show both male and female young voters.
Mary G
@raven: Yay! I had a bad spell of vertigo and was sent to an ENT who prescribed physical therapy, but before I got around to making the appointment, it went away on its own. Horrible experience. I always thought the spinning screen in Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” was silly, but it is just like that.
@Martin: Stole that for Twitter and added “Welcome to your future.”
I was Carter 1976 as well. Registered Democrat to annoy my mother.
Walker
I cannot remember if I voted in 1988 or not. My birthday is the week before Election Day, so theoretically is my is possible. But I somehow think I would have remembered that.
I definitely voted for Clinton in 92.
?BillinGlendaleCA
First Presidential vote was for Carter in 1980, first vote was the 1978 primary for Chairman Jerry and against Prop. 13.
Villago Delenda Est
@Martin: Pete Wilson’s legacy lives!
C Stars
Voted absentee for Clinton in 96. We were living overseas and my mother very strongly suggested I register/vote (and vote for Clinton, at that). Only GOP I’ve ever voted for was McCain, once, when I was living in AZ. Because I heard him on a radio show and thought he sounded like a straight shooter. Have spoken to many folks in AZ since then who actually had in-person interactions with him in various contexts and they all said he was pretty much your typical GOP jerk, but was good at sounding bipartisan/appealing in the press.
Mike R
@raven: Good news keep charging
Emma
@Mnemosyne: I would agree with you except that I have Russian acquaintances that lost friends to Putin’s regime and ANYTHING associated to it is a trigger for them.
C Stars
McCain for senator, to be clear….I was an Obama person/volunteer/voter from the get.
Nicole
@gene108: I also voted for Paul Tsongas in the 1992 primary for my first vote! Fist bump!
He was the most old-school liberal of the candidates. That’s probably why you voted for him It’s why I did. Two days later he dropped out of the primaries. I try not to blame myself.
FlipYrWhig
@gene108: I remember a mock classroom election in NJ in 1980, when I was in 5th grade. IIRC Reagan and Anderson tied for the top spot and Carter got virtually nobody. I was an Anderson voter. My irreligious parents never liked Carter because of his “born-again” Christianity.
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, tell Nemtsov and Politkovskaya I’m overreacting. Wait, you can’t — they’re dead.
C Stars
@zhena gogolia: Ugh. I can see why this concept has horrible associations and I can see why you wouldn’t like it. Having no knowledge of Putin’s campaign and prior usage, I initially thought the ad was cute, albeit definitely targeted at teenagers.
Does it seem that all of Putin’s propaganda poses as rather ironic and self aware (of the inherent hypocrisy) in a sort of classically alt-right/deplorable sort of way? I suppose the two movements share an aesthetic…among other things.
Kelly
Carter 1976. Carter is the only Presidential candidate I’ve seen close up. Happened across a rally with a few hundred people and went in. He was the warm genuine man you see building houses and monitoring elections.
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
Then you need to TELL MARCH FOR OUR LIVES THIS!
Seriously, if you really think this ad is going to cause voters to stay home because they associate it with Putin, you need to get in touch with MFOL IMMEDIATELY and tell them. Because I guarantee you they have no idea that some people will make that association.
EveryDayIHaveTheBlues
November 2017, for local elections in Hamilton County, OH. I became a citizen in April 2017.
WaterGirl
@raven: Oh, raven, I’m so glad to hear that. What a relief?
So what the hell do they think is causing the double vision on that side?
eemom
@Jerzy Russian:
“We learned about love in the back of a Dodge, the lesson hadn’t gone too far…”
Quinerly
Carter 1980 at age 19. Skipped college classes and drove home to vote in the small NC town I grew up in. My mom, dad, and I all voted together. ?
Miss Bianca
Mondale, 1984
geg6
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I was less than a month shy of my 18th birthday, so I couldn’t vote for him. But I worked for his campaign and even got to meet him at an event that year. So my first votes were for municipal elections in November 1978. Haven’t missed one, not even a primary, since.
Leto
Clinton in ’96. I tried to vote every time I could, though being in the military made it a bit harder. Now constantly pestering the kid, and fellow acquaintances, to get out and do their part.
Mike in NC
@zhena gogolia: In her book “The Man Without A Face”, Masha Gessen documents how little interest the American media had in what was taking place in Russia in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Putin was moving to control state television and prevent democracy from gaining a foothold. The oligarchs were also coming to power at that time and Putin made sure they knew their wealth was dependent on their loyalty to him.
geg6
@geg6:
That was Jimmy Carter I was talking about, to be clear. I hate not having an edit button.
mad citizen
I was born the day JFK was “elected” (chicago, etc.) President, so my b-day is always around or on election day. In 1978 I was voter eligible in the May primary. I think I voted, but like others kind of lost in the sands of time. I voted for dick lugar’s once or twice, but damn sure have never voted for a R president, congressperson or senator aside from lugar.
Geeno
Some town supervisor election in ’79.
Carter for Prez, Holtzman for Senator were the big losses for me in 80 (to Raygun and Al D’Amato)
NeenerNeener
1976 for Carter. Watergate made an impression on me; I’ve never voted for a Republican for president. And 2000 scarred me so badly I haven’t voted for one for even dogcatcher since.
SFBayAreaGal
1976, I was 20 and I voted for Jimmy Carter and never regretted my vote for this man.
I’ve voted Democratic every single election.
Just One More Canuck
@raven: they looked inside your head and didn’t find anything?
Spanky
@Just One More Canuck: I was waiting for that one.
PST
1972 for McGovern. It appears that I’m far from the only one here who first voted that year. I’d turned 18 less than a month before. Funny, but I can’t remember anything about it, probably because I voted absentee. I think that may be the only time.
sdhays
McCain, but only because by the time the 2000 Presidential primary got around to my state, Bill Bradley had already conceded to Gore and there was nothing else going on down ballot on the Democratic side, so I decided to pick up a Republican primary ballot and vote against W (my state had open primaries). And then voted against W again absentee (for Gore) in the general.
That was rough.
trollhattan
@PST:
Have never seen the statistics but the first presidential election (’72) after dropping voting age from 21 to 18 must have unleashed a torrent of first-timers. Plus it affected the Boomer mid-pack.
wkwv
I was a child of a stalemate marriage, Mom was a Grange Democrat and Dad was a party of Lincoln Republican. I was raised to be humble and never take more than my share. Sat across the aisle from the very conservative congressman’s daughter through most of high school. Hated the kids contempt for blacks and latinos, I had a latina best friend whose dad worked 70 hours a week and died on the job at 45. I heard a kid in my scout troop talk about “lazy mexicans” while a latino gardner replanted the front flower bed, a Mexican housekeeper was feeding her baby sister in the kitchen, and her mom was tanning in her tennis dress drinking wine by the pool.
Still I was a bit brainwashed and voted for Ford the week I turned 18. Never again. Other than one county councilwoman whom I regret voting for, I saw no reason to choose a Republican over a Democrat. Apart from one municipal election where I confused the date, and one school board election in my college town where everyone promoted the same vague goals and possitions, I’ve turned out voted with the democrats every time.
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
As Tamara points out, I’m not the target audience.
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
If it bothers you, and you think it may bother other people, you should tell them. It’s unfair to let them innocently carry out this campaign and not know it has other connotations.
Matt McIrvin
@trollhattan: We used the old lever machines for a student-council election in high school at one point. That’s the only time I ever encountered one.
As I mentioned, my district in Virginia used some very simple, very Eighties electronic voting machines in the 1988 Democratic primary. I don’t know what they used at other times because I generally voted absentee with mail-in ballots. There was one 1990s election in Cambridge, Massachusetts where I actually used a Palm Beach 2000-style Votamatic, punching chads out of a punchcard positioned awkwardly under a flip-book of candidates’ names. I also voted in at least one Cambridge City Council election that used a ranked-choice method–I don’t remember exactly how the ballot worked, but it was paper.
But at some point Massachusetts standardized on fill-in-the-oval scanned paper ballots.
Matt McIrvin
…And I didn’t vote in the 1992 Democratic primary at all because Virginia had a GOD DAMN CAUCUS and I was not in state.
workworkwork
@evap: Another bicentennial voter!
I’m still proud of my Carter vote and his post-presidency is showing my excellent character judgment.