The first election I knew about was Clinton vs Dole in 1996, when I was 6. Mind you, I didn’t know a damn thing about it, but my elementary school brought out a DOS computer with an application listing the names of the major candidates on it and had us go in a closet one-by-one and press one of the keys to “vote” for President. I don’t think they ever announced the outcome of our election though, I just remember that I voted for Clinton because I recognized his name.
I understood a little more about Bush v Gore, but not much. I remember being really shocked when some time later I was shocked when my mom said she didn’t vote for Bush! How can you not vote for Bush!? He’s president! (Yes, this is completely circular logic, I was a child)
I actually paid a lot of attention to Bush vs Kerry, and remember supporting Kerry but also not feeling particularly inspired by him, he seemed safe and boring to me, but better than Bush who by that time I had begun to actually form political opinions and not like.
I first voted in 2008 for Obama, and have voted every election since then, except for local elections in Arizona since I’ve moved to another state. I don’t feel comfortable voting on local elections for a state I don’t live in, but since I’m a grad student I can’t get a straight, clear answer on whether I’m allowed to register to vote here as a resident even though my only permanent address and workplace is here (because my work is a research assisstantship). There’s some language about it not counting if you’re “solely here for the purpose of education” that’s confounding me.
First one I remember was 1980, when I was 9. What I mainly remember is lots of my classmates thinking Anderson was going to win.
I turned 18 in 1989, so I didn’t get to vote in a presidential election until '92. I voted for Perot, which is kind of embarrassing, looking back. Clinton was such an awesome president, I wish I’d voted for him. Oh well, I voted for him in '96, better than nothing.
Since I couldn’t vote until I was 21, I first voted in the 1968 election. Humphrey, of course.
I first remember the crowd of neighbors watching the inauguration of Truman in January of 1949. We were the only television for two blocks around. I was five.
I remember the 1956 election as voting for the neighborhood was in our elementary school. I asked my mom who she was voting for and she said Ike. She wouldn’t vote for Stevenson as he was divorced.
I remember the 1960 election when I was ten years old. My parents were somewhat involved, on the fence between D and R, but both hated Nixon. I remember going to a rally where Nelson Rockefeller was shaking hands, and remember listening to the DNC on the radio.
After that my Mom moved left, becoming active in politics and other liberal causes; my father moved right, becoming involved in local politics, probably voting R in '64(!) and '68(!). (This political divergence may have correlated indirectly with their eventual divorce.)
I voted when first of legal age … for George McGovern for President.
I was 10. My elementary school talked about the election, and what Clinton stood for vs. what Bush stood for, and we voted in a mock election. I remember, rather vividly, “voting” for Clinton.
Didn’t have anything like that in '96.
First election I voted in was 2000, the year I turned 18. For president, I’ve voted Democratic my entire life.
I remember crying when I found out Nixon had lost in 1960 to Kennedy; in my defense, i was 7 at the time.
First Presidential vote was in 1972 (if I voted locally before that, it is lost in the mists of memory) and voted for Nixon because I had no faith that McGovern could be a good president (hmmm, some parallels to this year). Since then I’ve been pretty faithfully Democratic for President but spread it around for local/state.
I was in 5th grade in 1980, and it so happened that a major election happened to be taking place right around the time the public school system started teaching civics and such. I remember we held a mock election (Reagan won in a landslide), and our teacher voting for Anderson.
First election (or at least, first presidential election) I would have been old enough to vote in was 1988, and unless I’m misremembering, I voted via absentee ballot since I was away at college at the time.
My parents were both politically-minded and my elementary school was a city polling place, so I was aware of elections from at least 1960 forward. My dad’s Catholic family was overjoyed when Kennedy was elected and devastated when he was killed.
The first election I campaigned for was the 1972 Nixon-McGovern race. I was a zealous Democrat, and like most of my peers, very anti-Nixon. It was a blow to our young ideals when Nixon blew McGovern away.
I first voted in the 1976 Ford-Carter election and amazingly to all that knew me, I supported a Republican. I liked Gerry Ford and thought he was a decent and trustworthy guy in a time when such an individual was sorely needed. In retrospect, so was Carter, even though he made an ineffectual president.
I don’t recall 1964 elections, when I would have been 5 years old. In 1968, I listened to the adults and was partisan (in a mindless “this is the team we’re rooting for” way). My folks were Nixon voters and most of the neighbors were Wallace voters. Valdosta GA, to answer the question that you were probably about to ask.
The first I remember was 1968, Nixon/Humphrey/Wallace. I was seven for the campaign, and turned eight a week before Election Day.
Nixon and Wallace horrified me, even though I only had a seven year old’s grasp on the issues. I knew Humphrey had a history of doing nice things for the Negroes and, since my parents disliked the Negroes, figured the Negroes deserved to have nice things happen for them. I could tell that Nixon and Wallace didn’t care for the Negroes, either. (About a year later, the Negroes became Black people.)
Staunch McGovern supporter in '72; learned quickly to really, really hate Nixon.
Carter supporter in '76, because that fuck Ford pardoned Nixon.
At 19-20 in 1980, at college in the East, registered Republican to support John Anderson in order to keep a lunatic from earning the Republican nomination. Ended up voting for Dr. Barry Commoner of the Citizens’ Party in the general.
Racked with guilt over personally ensuring Reagan’s eight years in office by wasting my vote, I have voted a strict Democratic ticket in every election since, from president down to dog catcher.
The first Presidential election I remember is Kennedy/Nixon in 1960. I was six at the time. I voted for president the first time in 1972. I voted for McGovern because all us hippy dippy college kids voted for McGovern. I was a freshman and doing my best to be the hippiest dippiest college kid on campus.
First one I remenber was the 1977 election in Pakistan. The one Zulfiqar Bhutto won but was nullified by the military and their Islamic fundamentalist allies. I was nine.
The first US presidential election I voted in was Bush v Gore. I voted for Gore.
My first election was the '68 one. My parents were for McCarthy and I liked to go to the McCarthy headquarters, where everyone thought I was cute and I was the center of attention. I was about 3 1/2 at the time and wanted to work for “Carthy” when I grew up.
The first election I voted in was in 1984 and I voted for Mondale.
I remember Nixon-Kennedy in 1960, when I was nine. My father was for Nixon, my mother for Kennedy. I think I liked Kennedy. The 1956 election, Eisenhower-Stevenson, when I was five, didn’t register (pretty much like poor Adlai).