# What was the first election you voted in?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 11, 2017, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662 "2017-06-11T01:14:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Reddy\_Mercury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reddy_Mercury)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/1 "2017-06-11T01:14:00Z")
What was the first election you voted in, and if you care to volunteer, for who?
Myself it was 2012 and Barack Obama.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/2 "2017-06-11T01:41:46Z")
1. I only remember the names of the Presidential candidates; I voted for Carol Moseley-Braun in the primary, and John Kerry in the general election.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/3 "2017-06-11T01:44:35Z")
1. Reagan.
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### Author:  [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/4 "2017-06-11T02:06:22Z")
1968, Humphrey.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/5 "2017-06-11T02:17:14Z")
1980, Reagan vs. Carter. I voted for Reagan because Carter had just made me register for the draft.
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/6 "2017-06-11T02:28:17Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> 1980, Reagan vs. Carter. I voted for Reagan because Carter had just made me register for the draft.
1. I voted for Carter, despite the draft. (Not registering was probably my first felony).
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### Author:  [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/7 "2017-06-11T02:28:52Z")
2000, Gore v. Bush. Kind of an interesting start, I guess. Voted in all presidential elections since. Voted in all primaries and midterms until sometime after 2010. They changed my voting place and now instead of it being on my way home or just a few minutes away, it’s a 40+ minute round-trip.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/8 "2017-06-11T02:36:08Z")
1992 for Bill Clinton. I don’t recall if I voted in the primary that year but I know I voted in the general. I was away at college at the time and voting on campus so I don’t think I voted in the down-ballot races unless it was a straight (D) ticket.
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### Author:  [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/9 "2017-06-11T03:09:03Z")
1. I think I voted for Pat Paulson, but it might have been Snoopy.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/10 "2017-06-11T03:17:03Z")
1996, Clinton vs Dole; I voted for Clinton, because (a) it looked like the Republicans were going to retain the House and the Senate, and because (b) I figured the world would be a better place if they kept making things hard for a Democrat in the White House instead of suddenly making things easy for a Republican.
I was right about the first part, and I think I was right about the second.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/11 "2017-06-11T03:22:18Z")
1. John Anderson. The only time I’ve ever voted for an independent or third party candidate.
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### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/12 "2017-06-11T03:31:08Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> 1996, Clinton vs Dole; I voted for Clinton, because (a) it looked like the Republicans were going to retain the House and the Senate, and because (b) I figured the world would be a better place if they kept making things hard for a Democrat in the White House instead of suddenly making things easy for a Republican.
>
> I was right about the first part, and I think I was right about the second.
Same election. Voted for Dole. In retrospect, I don’t know why.
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### Author:  [@Reddy\_Mercury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reddy_Mercury)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/13 "2017-06-11T03:36:58Z")
I wonder how history would be different if America had voted Ford a second term in 1976.
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### Author:  [@Mona\_Lott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lott)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/14 "2017-06-11T03:40:17Z")
1972 for me. I voted for McGovern.
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/15 "2017-06-11T03:54:45Z")
Local and state elections in 1974
First presidential election in 1976. I had to cast an absentee ballot in that one, as I was overseas in the Army.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/16 "2017-06-11T04:27:59Z")
1. I voted for Humphrey, for one reason: He wasn’t Nixon.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/17 "2017-06-11T04:29:49Z")
2006 midterms. Ted Strickland and Sherrod Brown.
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/18 "2017-06-11T04:35:32Z")
I voted in 1978 in the California gubernatorial election. What a farce that was (Evelle J. Younger, the AG, v. the incumbent Jerry Brown). But far more important in that election was the innocuous Proposition 13, which became the first and most notorious of the anti-tax revolts of the late-70s and early-80s. It was kinda neat voting absentee from college in Rochester, NY.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/19 "2017-06-11T04:41:43Z")
1. Voted for Carter.
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### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2017, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-election-you-voted-in/788662/20 "2017-06-11T04:48:59Z")
I started a thread just like this a few years back. For me it was 2004, I voted for John Kerry, I pretty much knew he would lose though.
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