Who did you cast your first ever vote for ? For what office ?

I'm fifteen years old, so I have three years left until I can participate in the electoral process. I hear a lot here proclaiming that they cast their first Presidential vote for Jimmy Carter, so that would put a lot of us in their fifties.

Note that when I say vote, I mean the thing you are granted at age eighteen.

My first real vote was for John Kerry.

Needless to say, he got throughly trounced. I sorta soured on voting as a means of political expression after that...

What a crappy election to have for a first vote.

I think that I helped Mom work every presidential election since 1960 except 1968 after they killed Bobby. We didn't do much for Al Gore except vote for him.

...and I got the Iran-Contra scandal for that vote. That pretty much cured me of Rethuglicanism. Only Rethug I have voted for since 1984 was McCain in the infamous Michigan primary in 2000. I just couldn't resist that bit of troublemaking.

I'm so, so ashamed.

That would have been for ronny raygun in 1980. First vote ever was for the mayor of the town I grew up in, Closter NJ, his name was Elias Eliasof. I don't remember his party.

George Mcgovern in 72. I swore after I got home from Vietnam in 71 I would never vote repub.

for president and senator, respectively.

Voted on my 19th birthday.

November 1978

1998 Gov of Texas Bush. Hey I was just doing what my parents did. Presidential 2000 Al Gore. One does learn a lot between 18 and twenty.

I ran for School Board. I was still 17 when I gathered the requisite signatures to be on the ballot - but 18 before election day. 3 people running to 2 seats. The top two got 1500 and 1100 votes and I came in at just under 800. Was still a senior in HS at the time.

At the age of eighteen, much to the disgust of my entire Republican family and girlfriend.

Oh and that McGovern guy! It was '72

It prepared me for the future - democratic losses, Republican dirty tricks, and endless frustration that we won't convict the guys at the top and send them to prison.

then McGovern in the general, with a face palm in between re Eagleton off the ticket for having the brains to seek help when he needed it.

Or maybe voted absentee. I know I voted absentee in the general because I was in college. But I don't remember getting one for the primary.

I've slept since then

Oregon primary. Biggest damned mistake I ever made.

And yeah... I'm 54...

You young whipper snapper, LOL!!!

I voted for Bill Clinton even though my Dad was urging me to vote for Paul Tsongas.

I just barely missed the Bush/Dukakis election.
The first President I voted for was Clinton.

It was NPR who wrecked it for me too, if I recall.
I voted for Anderson, running as an Independent, so he would possibly get matching funds and it would validate 3rd party candidates. Didn't vote for the man at all, no way!

ever missed an election from school board to fire comm'r to local,state & Federal elections. If you don't vote, you can't complain.

Paulsen was a comedian who ran for president many times. I think 68 or 72 was the first time.

I was a sophomore in college and this was the first presidential election after they lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. Nixon was running for a second term and George McGovern was the Democratic candidate.

I supported McGovern until the middle of the summer when he decided to drop his VP candidate, Tom Eagleton, because Eagleton had disclosed he had been treated for depression. Eagleton was a US senator from MO. My dad knew him and he was greatly admired by my family. I was appalled when McGovern dropped him from the ticket. So I voted for Paulsen.

My dad was so mad at me. He said "You WASTED your vote!" And until the day he died, he brought that up many times, that I had wasted my first vote.

But I still think I did the right thing at the time.

I wrote in Barry Commoner... silly me, I was young and foolish

Vote for Reagan? Get the fuck out of here!

Although I do remember being disappointed that Mondale won the primary, there was no way I would vote for Reagan.


The first time I voted would have been in some local election a few years before that. I think my father might have been running that time, uncontested, for library board.

The first Presidential election I was eligible to vote was for Bill Clinton in 1992.

I was 18, and "busy" with other stuff. I'd like to claim credit for helping elect an African American woman as Mayor of Minneapolis, but I think I was registered to vote at my father's house in the suburb of Bloomington (if I was registered at all), rather than my mom's house in Minneapolis.

By 94, I was registered in Minneapolis, and I know I voted for Martin Sabo for US congress, Skip Humphrey for State AG, and all the rest of the Dems I could find on the ballot. I skipped all of the non-partisan and judicial offices.

In 95, I don't remember if I voted at all.

In 96, I voted in my first presidential election, and naturally, I voted for Bill Clinton. I'm also proud to have voted for Senator Paul Wellstone that year.

I told my coworker, a gulf war vet who has said "joining the army was the biggest mistake of my life," that I voted for Clinton, to which he said "good," and Wellstone, to which he said, "no way, he wants to take everyone's guns away, and that's not right!" I simply said "sorry, I didn't hear that, and there's no way that's going to happen anyway. I just like him because he stands up for the little guys." That's OK anyway, because he had some convoluted George Carlin-esque explanation for why he "refuses" to vote, so I figured he had no business complaining.

GH bush..forget what year but i was just voting age. I voted for bill clinton twice after that.

I'm old.

I'm ancient and very proud of that vote.

...I'm still upset by the outcome... '=_

some advice, don't just vote for someone because they have an R or D after their name. Do research on both candidates and find out which one is more to your interests. I vote for the person that meets my interests like Harry Reid not because he is a Democrat but because he is for the issues I believe in like 2nd amend. rights and Health care reform. So when you do come of age be wise and research the different candidates

My mom took me to see Dennis Kucinich when he came to Austin because I was apathetic about voting .I actually had a one on one talk with him and registered and became a Democrat.

Me and my Homie in 2004 when I was 18

Jimmy Da Man Carter, 1980.

I was hitch hiking across the country when I was 18, and I didn't vote or my first vote would have been in 78.

Not because I was particularly enamored of Mondale, but because I simple could not STAND Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Humphrey, I guess, in 1968). I turned 18 in 1968, but you were not allowed to vote until age 21 at that time. I had to wait four more years till the next presidential elections.

were old enough to die for your country but not old enough to vote for the people who would or would not send you to die. What a country.
BTW I do love my country and would not trade my military time for anything in the world as it helped me grow up

"You're old enough to kill, but not for votin'..."

I got used to losing early.

I had just turned 18 a month and a half before election day

He came back to Minnesota to run for the Senate again after being Vice President. And be glad you can vote at 18 -- I had to wait until 21.

Now I vote Dem because it is the RIGHT thing to do.

1996!

1974, I cast my first vote in the 1974 Pennsylvania Democratic Senate Primary. I voted for Dennenberg who was the Insurance Commissioner under Shapp. He had enough guts to stand up to Screw Cross and he repeatedly threw out their bloated rate hikes. And he supported the Kennedy-Griffiths Single Payer insurance bill. Little did I believe that 35 plus years later we still haven't been able to put the insurance racketeers out of business.

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (D) of Georgia
and
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (D) of Minnesota

Back in 1952 you had to be 21 to vote. They since changed it

I will turn 40 this year.

Yes, I was young, stupid, and in the miilitary. I've since repented.

(I got better.)

In 1978, in Philadelphia, a change to the city's Charter was proposed to allow mayors to serve three consecutive terms, which would have allowed then mayor Frank Rizzo to serve again. Rizzo was completing his second term.

Euphemistically speaking, Rizzo had problems with the minority community in Philly. On the ballot question, "Should the Philadelphia City Charter be amended to allow mayors to serve more than two consecutive terms?" I voted no.

In 1980, the first presidential election in which I was eligible to vote, I voted for Jimmy Carter, a man who, if he had won, would have charted a vastly different course for our country than former President Reagan. The differences between them were that one man was determined to speak the truth to the country, believing us to be grown up enough to handle truth that was not seen through rosy-colored glasses and the other was either determined to mislead or woefully uninformed. Supply-side economics! Morning in America, indeed!

It was really cool. Most of my class was able to vote in that election & since it was going to be our first time at the polls, the school district went all out to make sure we were registered, informed voters. We even had a mayoral debate, presided over by our class parlimentarian, with questions drawn up by us in our government classes. I daresay we were way more informed about the issues than the majority of adults. Of course, because it was a controversial election, some "well-meaning" adults tried to get our debate cancelled because we were being "brainwashed" to vote a certain way (bullshit) but unlike today, our school administration had a backbone & held the debate anyway (after we let everyone know we were going to have the debate whether they liked it or not---someone's dad owned a reception hall & said we could use that if needed).

dg

and I was twenty. But my first national election was for LBJ in 1964. I believe there were some local elections before then but I can't remember who or what they were for.

I could have voted in '68, but sat it out because I was so disgusted with the Chicago convention. I haven't missed a presidential election since, and I am now a supervoter, voting in every election that comes up.

1996!

I was a relative old-timer - 35, I'm ashamed to say - the first time I voted. Actually, TokenQueer (down thread) and I were working together at a video store back then. There was a voter registration going on outside our store. I believe he made some random remark about the election, and I confided that I had never voted. He about freaked out on me - he grabbed me by the hand, took me to the registration table, and the rest is history. I haven't missed one election since that year.

Damned if I remember who was on the ballot.

In the 1976 Primary I voted for Sargent Shriver for President. Voted for Eugene McCarthy that fall because I didn't like Carter.

I voted for Saturnino Braga (center-left) and he won. Don't remember my vote for alderman, but I 100% guarantee you it was another lefty.

President

local councilman, 1972

*edited to add year*

to be 21 in the olden days.

I was 21 & my son was just a few days old. Always have voted for the Dems.

Don't worry,I'll be able to vote in a year if the voting age is further lowered to 16.

illinois' favorite son that year.

Obviously, I knew nothing about politics at the time.