Question for all of you-YOUR FIRST VOTE

[zcflint09]

Since I just voted in my first election, I was wondering what everyone else's first elections were like--who'd you vote for, have you changed politically since then and such. Thought it would be an interesting topic to explore.

It was kind of a downer to have my first voting experince to be in a mid-term election in Michigan that didn't do a whole ton--most of the Democrats were on the same page and career politicians in my State Senate district, but my first ballot cast was for Jack Minore (D-Flint) because of his support for marriage equality. That was the only competitive race on the ballot, actually. So let's hear your stories, DU'ers!

[marlakay]

1. This will age me but I voted for Carter

first election. Everyone was so sick after watergate we picked the nicest guy we could.

[Midlodemocrat]

4. Me, too.

[elehhhhna]

62. Me three.

[Atman]

6. I didn't vote for Carter. I was so disgusted (and young and foolish)...

that I thought I would be making some sort of statement by refusing to vote for either Jimmy or Ronald. I went to DisneyWorld instead.

[Tyler Durden]

7. Don't feel bad: mine was McGovern...

...and I WORKED for Bobby Kennedy then Eugene McCarthy as a High Schooler.

[rsdsharp]

16. Mine was for McGovern, too

It was in the June 1972 Iowa primary. I had to register before I could vote. When they asked which party, I said Democratic. My (moderate) Republican mother almost fainted. "We thought your brother was going to be the radical," she wailed.

[sinkingfeeling]

19. My first vote also went to McGovern.

[GalleryGod]

30. A Great Man. A Hero.

30 Bomber Missions over Europe...he had first hand knowledge the havoc we were causing by bombing Vietnam.

Only Chickenhawks love war.

[Tyler Durden]

40. Have to say it...wish I'd been working on Bobby's re-election...

...Instead of McGovern's Campaign.

What a different WORLD we would have had. Bobby was no saint, but he would have kicked Nixon's ASS, and Vietnam would have been wrapped up before 1971. I firmly believe that.

[Mabus]

20. Carter/Mondale

were the first votes I cast for president too.

My very first votes were in a non-partisan city commission election.

[Neecy]

46. My first vote was for Carter as well

1980, Carter/Mondale. My sister voted for John Anderson and I remember being horrified - now Anderson would be considered a radical. How times have changed.

[Liberal Dose]

55. My first was Carter - for re-election. I cried my eyes out when Ray Gun

won. I remember all the Christians holding candles and protesting in Washington DC (and surrounding area) because the daily number on election day was 666.

[MiniMe]

59. That was mine too

[etherealtruth]

63. My first vote went to Carter ... Reagan won :(

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. Gore in 2000.

It was a disaster. Almost every candidate I voted for ended up losing.

[helderheid]

3. Kucinich in my State Presidential Primary

[bryant69]

5. Bush in 1988 - not a vote I"m particularly proud of.

[Tyler Durden]

13. This explains a lot...KIDDING! KIDDING!

Really, just kidding.

I have friends who expect me to kick them in the nuts when they say they voted for Nixon or Reagan. FORD I can forgive; he was "mostly harmless."

Seriously, you demonstrate major league juevos by coming clean on that one.

[bryant69]

37. I was barely 18 at the time

So it's not like i really made much of an informed decision. Just one of those things.

[Tyler Durden]

44. Just joking, Bryant. REALLY.

If schools were what they should be in this country, Reagan would never have made it out of California, GHW Bush would have been laughed out of the primary, and Nixon would have mouldered in San Clemente instead of giving us 6 more years of war.

To tell true confessions, I thought Nelson Rockefeller would not have been a bad president.

[Karenca]

8. My first vote for president

a long time ago:
Louis Fischer --Socialist Anarchist Party

I wa 18 years old.

[Drum]

9. 1984

no, really!

Mondale/Ferraro for the presidency...high hopes, but you know the rest....

[Hugin]

17. I feel your pain Drum...

It's a shame to lose one's idealism so early.

It has never really come back. I just live one vote at a time.

[geardaddy]

22. I tried to vote Mondale/Ferraro

but I was in PR of China at the time and my absentee ballot didn't get to me in time.

[tyedyeto]

10. Voted McGovern in 1972 n/t

[MrCoffee]

11. Clinton 96

Haven't picked a winner since.

[Fleshdancer]

15. me too

I've picked just one winner since then. Sen. Dayton when I lived in MN.

[mike_c]

12. Jimmy Carter was my first presidential vote....

eom

[Hugin]

14. Mondale... Ferraro...

:hide:

[RebelOne]

18. My first vote was for JFK.

And I have voted for Democrats ever since.

[Jim__]

21. My first vote was for John Lindsey for mayor of New York.

Lindsey (sp) had been a Republican but that year he had lost the Republican primary to John Marchi (sp) and Lindsey was running as a Liberal. I think Mario Procacino (sp) was running as the Democrat. Procacino was a blue-collar ocnservative.

Lindsey won!

My politics have stayed pretty much the same since then.

[GalleryGod]

35. Silk stocking District John

The Mets got him Re-Elected in 1969.

[MamaBear]

23. George McGovern, 1972

Winning is fun but voting isn't about fun. If you're going to get discouraged or think it's a waste of time every time your candidate doesn't prevail, you're not going to stick around very long.

That's why voting is for adults. You don't always win. You express your preference for who will be governing you and what policies they will bring to office.

Just becase Rove et al have degraded the whole process to gotcha frat boy status doesn't mean we have to accept his rules.

Now campaigning, that's another thing. Maybe a losing campaign can be considered a total loss, or a waste of time.

Never my time in the voting booth. THAT time is sacred, that choice is personal (and still private, by the way), and it's the act that counts. Election reform is now necessary to remove the taint of stolen elections.

Edited to correct typo.

[Fredda Weinberg]

24. I trudged through the snow to vote to re-elect Carter

I was too young to vote against Ford, but did my best to defeat Reagan.

[TayTay]

25. I remember voting for Teddy Kennedy back in 1976.

(I have voted for him every time since.) I wasn't 18 when the primaries were held that year, so that was my first election.

I voted for Carter for Prez that year.

[goodhue]

26. Dukakis

[WinkyDink]

27. My first vote was for Fred Harris, in the 1972 Dem primary.

McGovern, of course, in the national election.

[GalleryGod]

32. Fred R. Harris and his wonderful wife, LaDonna

were a great political couple.
Can you imagine? A DEMOCRAT from Oklahoma ??:patriot:

[Buzz Clik]

28. I voted for Nixon in 1972. Yeah, I've changed.

The trend is for kids to be liberal in college and tend toward conservatism. I took it the other way.

[ThomWV]

29. Hubert Humphrey - 1968 - Absentee Ballot Sent From Viet Nam

My first vote.

[MrModerate]

31. Mcgovern, the year I turned 20.

Thus giving away my age. I have voted progressive ever since (not always Dem -- some 'Licans, some indies). Haven't missed an election in 34 years, even having spent 12 of those years overseas (I think I've mastered absentee ballots).

What has changed for me is the last 5 years. Voting is no longer a pleasure and an affirmation of American values but an attempt to hold back the fall of night brought on by sick wackos who want to wreck my country and the world.

It's not so much fun anymore, but a damn sight more important.

[RoseMead]

33. 1988

Jesse Jackson in the primary, Dukakis in the general election.

Let me also add, just as a point of trivia, that I was the only 7th grader at my school to pay attention to the inauguration of Ronald Reagan with it's attendant hostage return drama. I even stayed in at lunch and asked the teacher to turn on the TV so I could watch the live news coverage. I remember feeling pissed off because even then it seemed to me that Carter was getting the shaft.

I'm a lefty from the cradle, apparently. :7

[MessiahRp]

34. I first voted for Clinton in 1996.

By the time Gore came around in 2000 I was working on campaigns as a volunteer. In 2004 I worked on 5 campaigns at once including being the Fox Valley Area Coordinator for the Kerry Campaign in Wisconsin. :)

I think I will have to lighten my load a little or I will kill myself in 2008. :)

Rp

[im10ashus]

36. For me?

It was the Reagan and Mondale election in 1984(Damn, I am old!). Obviously, my vote didn't count that year. :-(

[zbdent]

38. Pat Paulsen

I thought it was nothing more that Civics class, but the next day, the results were printed in the local papers ...

First vote I was legally allowed to do was not even a mid-term, in 1981.

In 84, I voted Mondale Ferraro ...

[datadiva]

39. Good God, now I feel old!

My first vote was for John F. Kennedy for President.

[zcflint09]

43. We'll all get there eventually

I'm sure when I'm sitting at about 50 (as long as I'm not locked up in some FEMA concentration camp), i'll be reminising on my first Presidential election and wondering why time went so fast.

It was a cool experince to be able to vote though, honestly. It was a very low turnout so knowing that my ballot was one of the 4,000 or so to go to Minore watching our local news was a bit neat. I'm sure I'll get more pessemistic as time rolls around.

[RebelOne]

51. Me, too.

[bowens43]

41. My first vote proudly cast for Jimmy Carter.

I have voted a straight Democratic ticket in every election since.

[MrSlayer]

42. I voted for Poppy Bush. Makes me sick to say that.

It's safe to say I have changed quite a bit in my political beliefs.

[ramapodem]

45. I am a youngin

My first vote was to send Lautenburg back to the senate in 2002.

[nosillies]

47. Clinton for prez in 1992

[Idioteque]

48. My first election is going to be in a few weeks...

It will include the Florida primary for Governor.

[Hoosier Dem]

49. Voted for Dukakis in 1988 and haven't looked back...

Of course, here in Indiana, our votes for president are pretty much useless. We're usually the first state to light uop red on Election Night (or the second if South Carolina has no glitches).

[ronnykmarshall]

50. Ted Kennedy ...

California primary 1980.

[last_texas_dem]

52. 2002 midterms

Well, actually the Democratic primary and runoff of '02, but the November election was the first election I voted in, as I had been too young to vote in the 2000 sElection. Not that the '02 midterms were much of an improvement. I voted straight Democrat and everyone I voted for lost, including the state rep candidate whose campaign I was volunteering with, except for a few local offices. '02 was the only election I ever went into thinking the outcome was going to be substantially different than it ended up being. I've had a much more pessimistic (but generally more realistic) attitude since then.

[warrens]

53. McGovern

Have I changed since then? Some, but not a lot. My views have remained pretty consistent since high school, with the exception that I'm real hawkish on deficits, which didn't exist as such when I was a kid. Or anyway, they were a rounding error compared to this pack of jackals.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

54. My first vote for president was for Dr. Spock in 1968.

Peace and Freedom Party. Against the war in Vietnam.

[Uncle Roy]

56. Gene McCarthy in the 1968 primary. Proudest vote I ever cast!

I wish we had more candidates like him today...

I also voted for Jesse Jackson, twice, but that was much later, in the 84+88 primaries.

[long_green]

57. 1st vote was for "Dynamite Mike Dukakis"

I still remember the energy.;)

[WyLoochka]

58. McGovern

A great and honorable person who has been smeared by the DLC elements of the party for far too long.

The disastrous convention of '68, nominating the keep the status quo Humphrey inside the hall after a long, caustic, prime time floor fight; and also featuring Richard Daley's vicious, violent, prime time assault on anti war protestors outside the hall set the stage for the long Dem decline.

The DLC progenitors - the "Scoop" Jackson Dems - many of whom are now Repukes - were brazen in working directly against McGovern in '72.

[Norquist Nemesis]

60. Carter - 1980

We all know how that turned out. :cry:

[Ioo]

61. Clinton 1992 - Clinton 1996 - Bush 2000 - Kerry 2004

I know I know, I have said it before, I worked for the local Bush camp. In many ways I am very republican (the old ones, not the new ones) and wanted to see a change... I thought, Clinton has done great, how bad can someone screw it up... SHAME ON ME!

[porphyrian]

64. Dukakis in 1988. In Florida. For what good it did. - n/t

[Metta]

65. I registered help McGovern beat Nixon. How times have changed.

I've become more committed to progressive politics while he's become more conservative. C'est la vie. He certainly represents a change I don't want to see mirrored in me.