I shook JFK’s hand, I was very small. But I remember my dad, in full dress uniform taking me to meet JFK, and hoisting me on his shoulders so i could shake his hand. This, I think was during the Primaries.
I was on the delegate list for Scoop Jackson for President. Carter got the nod, instead.
Surprisingly, considering that I’ve been politically active most of my adult life, I don’t remember the elections held when I was a child. That may be because Bob Menzies was the prime minister for most of my childhood, and thus politics in Australia were pretty boring.
The first election that I would have voted in was the 1966 federal election – the one that confirmed Harold Holt as PM. Having a new PM after 17 years of Menzies should have made the election exciting, but the leader of the opposition (Arthur Caldwell) was totally lacking in charisma, despite having survived an assassination attempt earlier in the year. I would have voted in the electorate of Kingsford-Smith, for the successful Labor candidate, and not for the much more famous Liberal candidate, Nancy Wake.
The first I remember is Nixon & McGovern in 1972. I would’ve been 8.
The first I was old enough to vote in was 1984, Reagan & Mondale.
1979, I remember schoolmates on the bus saying their dads voted for Reagan, I remember my mom saying I could no longer be in the pull voting booth with her (NYS), cause in 1984 I was in Florida.
Where do you live? Because where I live, voting does change things, and it’s not illegal.
The first election I remember was the 1972 U.S. Presidential election; I was 7. I remember watching the coverage of the returns that night with my father; I also remember having some sort of “Snoopy for President” item that I’d gotten from a pack of Butternut Bread. 
I first voted in the U.S. election in November, 1984. I would have been old enough to have voted in the Wisconsin primary that year, but I clearly hadn’t been involved enough to care to vote. For the presidential election, I voted on campus at the University of Wisconsin; my roommate and I arrived at the polls around 6pm (2 hours before they were supposed to close), and there was a massive line. The poll workers told us that, as long as we were in line before 8pm, we had the right to vote. We finally got to the voting booths around 8:30pm. Just after we voted, we were walking out, and one of the pollworkers was watching election results on a small portable TV. “Reagan’s won 30 states; Mondale won Minnesota,” he told us. “Your vote counted!”
That’s the first one I remember too. Maybe I should remember an earlier one because I was 11, but I don’t think at 7 I was aware that Regan had even run for reelection. He’d been president since I was 3, after all.
First election I voted in was 1996.
The first election I remember was the leadership contest for the federal Liberals in 1968, which Trudeau père won. My Mom was making a bed quilt and curtains while we watched the convention, and we always called them the Trudeau curtains afterwards. Don’t actually remember the federal election of that same year.
(I also remember hearing a news item in 1968 that LBJ had announced he was not running for a second term. I remember being outraged by the implication that he thought he could run again, since he’d already had two terms. My command of the details of the 22nd Amendment was obviously a bit fuzzy at that age. )
I also remember RFK’s assassination that same year. My Dad looked worried.
First provincial election I remember was 1971 when the New Democrats under Blakeney defeated the Liberals under Thatcher. My Dad was upset, as a small businessman; didn’t like the NDP.
First federal election I remember was 1972, when Trudeau eked out a minority. Remember seeing Pearson on the TV arriving at Liberal HQ, with the pundit commenting that here came someone who knew about running a minority government (Pearson served two terms as PM but never had a majority.)
We were out at the cottage at the lake in the summer of 1974. I was in a swing outside when my Dad came out and said something was on TV I should watch. I went in and watched Nixon resign.
First federal election I voted in was 1979, when Joe Clark defeated Trudeau.
Snoopy for President was the '68 election, which is also the first one that I remember. I also remember my Mom crying when Bobby Kennedy was assasinated.
I missed being able to vote in the 1980 election by two months. I voted in local and state elections until 1984 when I cast a vote for Walter Mondale.
My first voting election had to have been 1960. I joined the Air Force when I was 18, in 1957 and that would have been the first presidential election.
I voted to Richard M. Nixon; one of the finest presidents ever elected.
Bob
I vaguely remember election night 1976 when I was seven. My father, a lifelong Republican, was upset that Carter won. I remember watching the inauguration the following January more clearly.
The first election I voted in was November 1987. I don’t remember what was on the ballot, probably only local offices since it was an odd-numbered year. My first presidential election was 1988 (Bush vs. Dukakis).
My first-grade teacher conducted a mock election between Ford and Carter the day before the real election. I remember Ford winning.
I vaguely remember the John Lindsay mayoral election, only because my parents voted for different candidates. My mother, always willing to consider a third party candidate or even the occasional Republican, voted for Liberal Party candidate Lindsay, and my father, who voted for straight party Democrat, always, voted for the Democrat candidate. Lindsay won, and my mother wasn’t terribly kind about it. I wasn’t very old, so I probably don’t remember the actual election day, but later conversations.
I clearly remember the McGovern/Nixon election. I was almost six. My brother was a baby. I had to stand and wait by the clerks’ table, but my brother, who was 7 months old, got carried into the voting booth with my mother. I was jealous, and one of the clerks was letting me play with the sample ballot, and he asked me if I was going to vote for Big Bird. I was indignant, and told him that* if *I could vote, I would vote for McGovern, of course. Big Bird was not on the ballot, and would make a terrible president anyway. This was the first time I remember watching returns on TV with my parents.
Election days were very big in our family. My father was a precinct chairman, and my mother always worked at the polls, except when she had a child who wasn’t in school yet. I worked as a poll-book holder when I was 10, for a three hour shift, and every year after that, I was either a poll-book holder, a watcher, or canvassing for candidates outside the polls.
I voted for president for the first time in the Dukakis/Bush election. Not an auspicious start. I was 22. It was my third time voting, even though I went and registered on my 18th birthday. It was an off-year, though-- no election. I missed voting against Reagan for his second term by two months. So I didn’t get to vote until I was 19. I was an official, paid poll worker then, though, and was a poll worker every year until I was at Gallaudet, and then I voted by absentee the first time. I also voted by absentee when I was in the military. I have never missed an election. I have also worked at the polls sporadically since. When I have had a job with flexible hours, and not had a small child, I have usually worked.
The first time I voted for a non-Democrat was when I voted for a Republican who had a very good record on women’s issues (he’d been pro-ERA, and pro-choice), and was running against an anti-choice Democrat. I have since voted for another Republican, and a couple of Green party members, and a Libertarian, but mostly I vote Democrat. My policy generally is that I vote the person in local races, the issues in state races, and the party in national races, albeit, I can’t imagine an issue that would get me to vote for a non-Democrat governor. Choice, but I doubt Indiana would run an anti-choice governor.
TL;DR: McGovern/Nixon; almost 6; 19, because there wasn’t an election when I was 18-- first presidential was Bush/Dukakis.
1976, was 9yo and our Governor was going to be President!
I wrote a letter to the editor after the 1976 election, because the paper said that Jimmy Carter was the first president elected from the Confederacy. I pointed out that LBJ had been elected 12 years before, from Texas. The city editor was a friend of my Dad and was amused. Letter got printed.
I remember the '68 election; I had just turned eight.
My parents supported Humphrey. My mom and my best friend’s mom went to the airport to see his plane come in for some campaign event. My friend, his brother, and I got to carry a homemade sign. “DUMP! THE! HUMP!” we shouted until they figured out what we were saying.
(Most of the people we knew were originally McCarthyites. I supported Kennedy in the primary, though, because I liked the letter K. This is why the under-ten crowd isn’t given the vote.)
I voted for the first time in the off-year elections of '78. Not sure who I voted for in the senatorial election–might’ve been Chuck Percy over Alex Seith, boy those names take me back. In 1980 I voted for Carter. No question about that one. My girlfriend (now wife) and I went to watch the coverage in a TV room in the college dorm, but as we arrived, ready for a long night, two guys came out…“But Reagan is so bad!” one of them said, and we knew it was all over.
My first time voting was in the 2006 midterms, right after I turned 19. First presidential vote was 2008.
I have vague memories of Reagan vs. Mondale in 1984, when I was 11. ISTR Ferraro crying on TV and people saying, “Would she cry if negotiations with the Soviets broke down?! Huh???” I don’t think Hillary Clinton will run into the same problem. I’m pretty sure either ice water or battery acid runs through her veins. (I say that as a supporter.)
I remember a bit of the '88 election, mostly from SNL sketches. “I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy!” and “George Bush: he beat a bad man” stick out.
I first voted in '92, by absentee ballot, since I was away at college.
I was born in 1961.
The first election I remember was the 1966 race for mayor of New York City. Liberal Republican John Lindsay beat Democrat Abe Beame and Conservative William F. Buckley (who famously quipped that, if he won, his first act would be to demand a recount).
The first Presidential race I remember was 1968. At one time or another, I supported Humphrey (because I loved his HHH bumper sticker), Wallace (because I heard neighbors saying Humphrey was going to give the country away to the N-words) and Nixon (because he was on “Laugh In”).
That, of course, illustrates why 7 year olds shouldn’t vote!
The first year I voted was 1979, but there were no major races on the ballot in New York that year. My first vote ever was for state assemblywoman Rosemary Gunning.
And I voted for Reagan a year later.
I remember watching the 1952 conventions on TV when I was 7. All I remember is the vertical signs for the states. It was the first time I saw letters arranged vertically. And my mother explained to me why the Democrats were the good guys.
The first time I voted was in 1968. I voted for Humphrey, whom I didn’t care for, but at least he wasn’t Nixon.