What was the first presidential election you voted in?

[TSExile]

Mine was the debacle of 2000, at age 21. I honestly thought after that circus (hanging chads, anyone?) that things possibly couldn't get worse than that. I was so naive!!!

[Xavier Breath]

1. 1984, which occurred just days after my 18th birthday.

My voting precinct was my high school, so I just stopped into the band room at lunch time and cast my vote. There were only a handful of kids who had turned 18 at that point in the school year, and of the ones I talked to I was the only one that voted.

[jimfields33]

77. 1988. 19 years old.

[Bettie]

98. Same but it was a few months

after my 18th birthday. I was in my first year of college.

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. George McGovern.

We kicked ass in Massachusetts.

[calguy]

8. I also cast my first vote for McGovern

But it was not enough to put him over the top.
I wish I could have voted for Humphrey in 1968, but the voting age was 21 at the time.
I'm proud, however, that our generation lowered the voting age to 18.

[Celerity]

29. utterly brutal map

Nixon received almost 18 million more popular votes than McGovern—the widest margin of any U.S. presidential election ever to date.

Nixon won Virginia; however one elector cast a vote for John Hospers (the first ever Libertarian POTUS candidate)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hospers

John Hospers (June 9, 1918 – June 12, 2011) was an American philosopher and political activist. Hospers was interested in Objectivism, and was once a friend of the philosopher Ayn Rand, though she later broke with him. In 1972, Hospers became the first presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party, and was the only minor party candidate to receive an electoral vote in that year's U.S. presidential election.

[Frances]

45. I was living in MA then

Everyone I knew voted for McGovern. I was shocked at the results.

[Xavier Breath]

111. I was only about six at the time so I wasn't aware of what was happening

But didn't people see the landslide coming? Say, a week out from the election, what were the polls saying? What was the scuttlebutt at the water cooler? It just seems like such a thorough beating would have looked like a tsunami wave on the horizon. I'm just curious what the average Democrat's mindset was in the days leading up to election day.

[electric_blue68]

158. And Unfortunately that was all. I was so devastated!

Was my first Presidential Election.

I'd volunteered and walking into the NYC hotel for McG that evening...
:'''''(

[pfitz59]

3. 1980

I voted for Carter.

[Ocelot II]

4. Nixon vs. McGovern.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

5. 1972 for McGovern

Democrat ever since.

[BOSSHOG]

6. 1972, absentee ballot

From Navy Boot Camp San Diego. 18 years old.

[Permanut]

126. Camp Nimitz.

Remember it well.

[BOSSHOG]

139. Ain't dere no more

Fond memories indeed. Navy sold the land to San Diego. But USMC boot camp is still there. San Diego, what a liberty town for an 18 year old knucklehead from Arkansas.

[rsdsharp]

7. 1972. McGovern only carried Massachusetts and DC.

He got 17 electoral votes. 17. He even lost his home state of South Dakota to Nixon. Nixon threw his presidency away to spy on the Democrats in an election that he couldn’t possibly have lost.

To be clear, I voted for McGovern.

[FakeNoose]

20. Nixon used dirty tricks to eliminate the 3 possible Dems who might have beaten him in 1972

Instead his opponent was George McGovern, a relative nobody from nowhere. That's why Nixon won by a "landslide" in '72. The thumbs were on all the scales during the primary season, and the Repukes succeeded in eliminating some powerful candidates. (Scoop Jackson, Ed Muskie, Hubert Humphrey, Td Kennedy and others were possible Dem candidates who didn't earn the nomination.)

Of course those dirty tricks and Repuke cheating came out later in the Watergate hearings.

My first election was 1972 and I voted for McGovern.

[former9thward]

89. That is not what happened.

Convention rules were changed in a reaction to the 1968 convention and old-style Democrats which included organized labor and big city machines were not even allowed to attend the convention. Their spots were given to political activists. In Illinois, for example, the elected delegates led by Mayor Daley were unseated and an un-elected delegation led by Jesse Jackson was seated. Jimmy Carter led the "Stop McGovern" in the South. During the general election these excluded groups which had delivered the vote to the party in the past sat on their hands.

McGovern had led the Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection, which changed the rules for convention delegates. He himself acknowledged the disaster when he said, "I opened up the doors to the Democratic party and 20 million people walked out",

That is not counting McGovern knocking off his own VP, Tom Eagleton because he had been treated for depression.

The 1972 election was not loss because of Republican dirty tricks, it was lost due to mistake after mistake by activists who had taken over the party, More information can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Democratic_National_Convention  

[JenniferJuniper]

35. Bumper stickers after Watergate -

"Don't blame me. I'm from Massachusetts."

[chicoescuela]

9. 1976 Jimmy Carter

Just barely 18

[lastlib]

38. Also 1976, voted for Rosalynn Carter's husband.

Damned proud of that fact.

[phylny]

72. Me too.

I was at college so I voted absentee.

[Ms. Toad]

103. Same here -

But I registered to vote at my college residence, much to the consternation of residents of the town, who were afraid college students were registering to vote there only to permit alcohol sales within city limits.

The town remained dry.

[tosh]

145. Same!

It was a proud day for me, I’ll never forget.

[2naSalit]

10. 1972...

Last edited Sun Nov 26, 2023, 12:16 PM - Edit history (1)

Voted for McGovern from NH.

[multigraincracker]

102. Me too.

[Eugene]

11. 1984 at age 21.

The 1980 election was 7 weeks before my 18th birthday.

In the 84 Massachusetts primary, George McGovern was on the ballot.
Voted for Gary Hart. Volunteered and voted for Walter Mondale
in the general.

[NewHendoLib]

12. 1976 - Carter

[redwitch]

140. Me too!

[Disaffected]

13. I have never voted

in a presidential election and very likely never will.

[Ocelot II]

26. Why?

[herding cats]

95. My guess is because they're Canadian.

[Ocelot II]

99. Yes, thought they might not be a citizen.

[Disaffected]

113. Yes, they is not an American citizen. nt

[wanderer54]

14. 1968

1968

[marybourg]

15. Lyndon B. Johnson. The voting age was 21 at that point.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

16. McGovern '72, when I was 20.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

25. I was 20 also that year.

A May baby.

1952 was also the Year of The Dragon according to the Chinese Zodiac. Good to be a Dragon.

[vercetti2021]

17. 2008

Proud to have voted for Obama at 18

[Runningdawg]

18. 1980 Carter.

I had just moved to NYC and didn't know a soul. I lived in a YMCA and there was no TV. I went to a Blarney Stone to watch the returns. Met 2 guys on vacation from TX and we all cried in our beer.

[BigmanPigman]

56. Me too.

I had also just moved to NYC to go to art school and turned 18 in July. When Raygun was shot my fellow students were glad. I have voted in every single election (even all the local ones) since. Sometimes I think I jinxed the Dems since I was rewarded with 12 straight years of GOP asses.

[Srkdqltr]

19. 1964. I don't remember who i voted for.

[marybourg]

22. I hope it was Johnson. He was the Dem.

[Srkdqltr]

91. Probably was.

I wasn't old enough to vote for Kennedy but I was a poll worker in 60 and 64.

[walkingman]

21. McGovern/Shriver '72 ☮

[Celerity]

23. 2016, a couple weeks after I turned 20. I voted in the 2014 midterms as well, and every election since.

[Polybius]

24. 1996, for Bob Dole

Don't ask, I was young.

[GP6971]

27. 72 McGovern. n/t

[Niagara]

28. 1996. I voted for Bill Clinton.

It was a voting booth where the voter flips the lever and the curtain closes.

Then there was more levers to flip besides for Bill Clinton. I didn't know who the other choices were so I only flipped the lever for the only name that I recognized.

I didn't have access to the Internet and I certainly didn't have access to DU.

To leave the voting booth, one had to flip the lever to open the curtain to be able to leave the booth.

[musette_sf]

87. Assume you're from NY

(1) user name checks out
(2) my first votes were in NY in a booth with a lever to open the curtain. I’ve subsequently voted in other states and have never seen those anywhere else.

[EllieBC]

94. I'm originally from NY. The lever that

Opened the curtain was my favorite thing ever as a kid because my mother always let me do that. 🤣

[Niagara]

116. I'm not originally from NY.

I've resided in NY for over a decade now.


My first time voting in the 1996 Presidential election was in Indiana.

[BoomaofBandM]

30. 1976, Carter. I was 18.

[Iggo]

31. 1980.

And I’m sorry to say it, but I chose poorly.

[Clearheadsam]

32. Yup, 1972 Same year signed up for selective service

at Post Office.

[Haggard Celine]

33. 1988. Voted for Dukakis/Bentsen.

I knew Bush was going to win, but I went ahead and voted anyway. I have been on the losing side of every Presidential election in my state. We should all keep voting, no matter what the rest of the voters in our states do. Voting gives me the right to bitch about the turnout, and I want to hold on to my right to bitch.

[LeftInTX]

53. I've lived in Texas for over 40 years. I would like to say my candidate won, but no

[redqueen]

123. Same here.

Proud to have voted for the Dem in every election since then too.

[bottomofthehill]

34. 84 Mondale

Worked on the Kennedy ( Ted) campaign in 80 but was not old enough to vote.

[gopiscrap]

36. 1980

[Rhiannon12866]

37. McGovern in 1972

I just knew that I didn't care for Nixon. But the first candidate I followed and liked a great deal was Jimmy Carter.

[PufPuf23]

39. 1972 for McGovern, age 19.

Went to POTUS Democratic Primary rallies for McCarthy, Humphrey, and Wallace in San Francisco 1968. Wallace had not been shot yet, ran as a Democrat, and there were far more protectors than supporters at the Cow Palace, a high school field trip no less.

[young_at_heart]

40. 1960

I was 21 and I voted for Kennedy.

[Frances]

44. I voted in Alabama in 1964

I voted for Johnson
I was too young to vote when Kennedy ran against Nixon.
I didn’t have a tv and could not watch them debate.
It wasn’t until I heard Kennedy give speeches after he was president that I was glad he had won.
I have never voted for the Republican presidential candidate.

[IbogaProject]

41. 1988

I voted for Jesse Jackson in the Democratic primary. And for Michael Dukakis in the general election.

[Tree Lady]

42. Jimmy Carter 1976

[dflprincess]

43. 1972 the first vote I ever cast was for George McGovern

And I'll always be proud of that.

[Greybnk48]

46. 1968 I voted for Hubert Humphrey, not Tricky Dick.

The voting age was 19 where I was living.

[SCantiGOP]

47. I was a college student

Drove an hour back to my home city to vote and drive South Carolina Democrats to the polls all day.
Got back to my apartment after 8, and my roommates were getting ready to go out. I said I was going to crash on the couch and watch the returns - they were laughing as they told me they had already called the election for Nixon over McGovern.

[LeftInTX]

48. 1976. I voted for Gerald Ford, but in 1980 I turned around and voted for Carter over Raygun

While, I was standing in line waiting to vote, they announced that Reagan had won.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

49. 1976

The last time that Texas went blue

[PuppyBismark]

50. Kennedy - 1960

[nevergiveup]

51. 1964 Goldwater vs LBJ

Goldwater carried only 6 states and lost by 15 millions votes.

[MiniMe]

54. 1976 Carter

[Timewas]

55. Johnson

1964, he got 486 electoral votes/Goldwater got 52.

[brush]

57. 1972, lived in Berkeley at the time, voted the Gus Hall/Angela Davis ticket.

[orleans]

58. election day was on my 18th birthday in '76 & i voted for jimmy carter. nt

[sdfernando]

59. 1980. Carter

And every DEM since!

[Sugarcoated]

60. Carter Reagan

Of course voted to reelect President Carter

[mockmonkey]

61. 1980 Carter n/t

[rpannier]

62. 1984: Reagan Mondale

[MistakenLamb]

63. 2004 for Kerry

[Sneederbunk]

64. William Jennings Bryan. I forget the year.

[Walleye]

65. My first vote was in a presidential primary in California in 1972, I voted for Shirley Chisholm, I will always be proud

[retread]

67. Me too. I want to live in an America where Shirley Chisolm could be elected President.

[Walleye]

68. It's funny in those days I was never thinking of "electability". She probably would've done better than McGovern

[Emile]

66. Voted overseas in 1972 for George McGovern.

[Mousetoescamper]

69. Jimmy Carter in 1976

I was 19 and excited to vote for the first time.

[Boomerproud]

70. I was 20 and excited as well.

Voted for Jerry Brown in the primary. The press called him Governor Moonbeam but actually he was a pragmatic guy. So happy when Jimmy won!

[Shrek]

71. Reagan vs. Mondale n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

73. Carter '76

I voted in '74, but that wasn't a presidential election year. I turned 18 less than 2 months before that election.
I was 20 in '76.

[sinkingfeeling]

74. 1972. Back then you had to be 21 to vote,

so I missed 1968 and was 24 when I voted for McGovern.

[Voltaire2]

122. Actually in 72 18 was the voting age.

[sinkingfeeling]

147. Yes, but in 1968, when I was 20, I couldn't vote. The age changed in 1971.

[Sal_NV]

75. 1968.

I turned 21 in 67 but didn't vote in my first presidential election until 1968.

[Omaha Steve]

76. 1976 Carter

[Akacia]

148. Jimmy Carter 1976.

[if..fish..had..wings]

78. Zappa

1972, I wrote in Frank Zappa

[yellowdogintexas]

79. 1968 Humphrey v Nixon. I was 20 years old

I was at college and had to vote absentee. Since I lived in Kentucky, I could vote at age 18 (Kentucky lowered voting age in 1956)

Hubert Humphrey would have made a great president.

[claudette]

80. 1972

Democratic candidate

[ificandream]

81. McGovern.

If I remember correctly, the voting age has just been lowered to 18. Otherwise I wouldn’t of been able to vote.

[Glorfindel]

82. I proudly voted for LBJ in 1964. I was 18.

At that time, Georgia was one of only two (I think) states that allowed 18-year-olds to vote. I took it very seriously and was proud to do my civic duty.

[Basic LA]

83. McGovern in '72.

But pro-Vietnam war sentiment was triumphant & Nixon won reelection by a landslide.

[wyldwolf]

84. 1988

[LuckyCharms]

85. 1976-Carter

[doc03]

86. I wasn't old enough until 1972, that year I probably voted for Nixon, not sure.

I voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976 and RR in 1980. I have never voted for a Republican for any office since.

[justhanginon]

88. Born in '36 so I believe 1960. I do still remember standing in the snow on that really cold snowy day to cast my vote.

For JFK if memory serves. A long time ago and have never voted for a Republican president.

[No Vested Interest]

135. 1960 for me as well. Born mid-Nov. 1935, so just missed 1956 by one week!

Had to be 21 to vote at that time.

[Polybius]

160. I thought everyone remembered their first election like it was clear as a bell

Sorta like where you were on 9/11 and other major events.

[hot2na]

90. I voted for Carter in 1976

I was in the Navy at the time and I cast my first ever ballot at the age of 20 on my ship which was at sea.

[Mossfern]

92. 1972

I had worked on Eugene McCarthy's campaign, but I wasn't yet 21, so I couldn't vote for him. Voted for McGovern in the next election.

It was McCarthy who inspired me to become politically involved.

[EllieBC]

93. Very proud to say 1992.

I was so excited to be 18 and able to vote for Clinton. ❤️

[MaryMagdaline]

96. 1980

Jimmy Carter. Never regretted my vote.

[Liberal In Texas]

97. Voted for George McGovern. Also worked with him making his regional TV commercials.

I really like him. He would have been a fine president. It just wasn't in the cards. Instead we kept Tricky Dicky.

[Chainfire]

100. McGovern

[TheFarseer]

101. 1996

I voted for Dole. I was 18, from rural Nebraska and only knew what my conservative parents told me.

[ok_cpu]

104. Clinton '92 n/t

[CanonRay]

105. 1972- McGovern

[BlueTsunami2018]

106. 1988

I voted for Bush. I didn’t know any better. 🤷🏾‍♂️

[William769]

107. I missed voting in the 1980 election by one month

So the first Presidential election I was old enough to in was 1984, which was Walter Mondale against the devil's spawn Ronald Reagan.

[treestar]

157. 1984 Mondale

[dweller]

108. 1972

McGovern
You should have posted a poll …
✌🏻

[Martin Eden]

109. 1976 age 19 vote for independent Gene McCarthy

My older sister and I were big fans when he was the Democratic antiwar candidate in 1968.

[Elessar Zappa]

110. I voted for Kerry in 2004.

When he lost, I was in a serious depression for two weeks. I was 21 and convinced that Bush would turn into a dictator. Turns out Bush was nothing compared to Trump.

[Rebl2]

112. Jimmy Carter 1976

[MOMFUDSKI]

114. I think it was for

McGovern.

[CTyankee]

115. JFK. I must be the oldest DUer on this thread up to now! That makes me feel VERY old.

But I remember the thrill of it. I was 21 when I voted for the first time!

[Niagara]

118. Hopefully one day, there will be a few hundred of us determining on DU

who's the oldest is here.

[CTyankee]

119. Hopefully, but this still makes me feel old.

[Niagara]

121. ...

[No Vested Interest]

134. 1960 for me also, but I'm older than you.

I was 24, nearing 25.
I missed the 1956 election by about one week, born mid-Nov.

[ratchiweenie]

117. 1968 for Humphrey.

[dsc]

120. 1988

I was a month out from my 21st birthday so I had voted in 1986 midterms. I voted for Dukakis who lost my then state, Illinois by a small margin. To give you an idea of how much things have changed electorially. Dukakis lost Illinois by 2 and won Iowa by 10. He also won WV by over 4.5. He did better there than in NY. He also lost MD, NJ, CA, CO. CT and DE. Of those, only MD and CA were closer than 5. It is amazing to see only 35 years ago we got killed in places like NJ and DE and were winning the likes of Iowa and WV.

[LudwigPastorius]

124. I voted for Mondale/Ferraro in Nov. 1984.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

125. Let's see. I turned 18 in 1979, and the next election was 1980 where Reagan beat Jimmy Carter by almost 10 points.

I don't remember who I voted for, although I don't believe I've ever missed an election - my obsessive-compulsiveness won't allow it. Also, I would have been living at college and I vaguely remember being (very) mildly excited about my first election, and grateful that there was a voting station located conveniently on campus at the student center.

Jimmy Carter is one of the few politicians that I have long admired (another being former CA governor Jerry Brown), and he was an engineer, as I was studying to be. I also cringe at the idea of former actors or other "celebrities" running for public office. So, if I had to bet, I would guess that I voted for Jimmy Carter (or against Reagan, not sure which would have been my greater motivation). So that may have been the first of many losing elections for me.

[happybird]

127. 1996, for Bill Clinton

Was also a volunteer at the local Dem HQ that year

[usedtobedemgurl]

128. I voted for Bill Clinton.

That was the first time I was eligible. I have never regretted a single vote.

[Faux pas]

129. 1972

Was a bust

[northlake9]

130. 1972

Proudly voted for George McGovern, and every Democrat since.

[DavidDvorkin]

131. 1964. Johnson vs. Goldwater. American democracy was at stake in that one, as well.

[Freddie]

132. 1976 Carter

I was 19. Absentee ballot from college.

[Danmel]

133. 1980

Voted for Carter. 1984, voted for Mondale. 1988, voted for Dukakis. Took 12 years will I finally voted for a winner with Bill Clinton.

[WestMichRad]

136. 1976. Ford

He was the last Repub candidate I voted for, besides William Milliken, Michigan governor until ‘83.

[BigMin28]

137. 1980

I had just turned 18 and proudly voted for Jimmy Carter.

[PJMcK]

138. 1976

Jimmy Carter vs. Gerald Ford

I turned 18 a few months before the election. I had become interested in politics during the previous couple of years working as a student reporter for local radio station. I registered to vote on my 18th birthday.

Watergate taught me that Republicans are criminals. In the years since, that lesson has proven true over and over. The day Nixon resigned is seared in my memory. I was over-joyed!

It was a great moment to cast my first vote for Jimmy Carter from Plains, GA.

[Deep State Witch]

141. 1984

I voted for Gerry Ferraro and What's-His-Name.

[The Wandering Harper]

142. 1992

Turned 18 in '91. Couldn't wait to vote against Reagan's VP after all the bullshit and degradation of growing up poor under Reaganomics. But I felt betrayed by Clinton with his signing on to that welfare reform package

[tiredtoo]

143. 1964

Being young and ignorant I voted for Goldwater.

[Attilatheblond]

144. 1972 by the grace of the Twenty-sixth Amendment

McGovern, of course, but I did vote for Jerry Brown in the CA primary. And I would again, but not this year

[11 Bravo]

146. 1972 - George McGovern

Not long out of the Army, and still recuperating from a wound suffered in combat ... I couldn't fucking wait to cast that ballot!

[bdamomma]

149. ? 1976

Always voted Democratic, proud to be a Democrat.

I was so happy to register to vote.

[sakabatou]

150. 2008 presidential

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

151. 1980 Jimmy Carter

nt

[Buttoneer]

152. 1980. I voted for Reagan.

I voted for him again in 1984, and Bush in 1988. Then, I fell in love with a Bostonian liberal on a BBS and have voted Dem ever since 1992.

I'm a recovering republican.

[RockRaven]

153. 5th grade class president, I think... Must have been about 10 years old.

Don't remember who I voted for, or who won.

[SYFROYH]

154. 1988 George H. W. Bush versus Michael Dukakis

It didn't go the way I wanted, but I did have the thrill of voting for Reverend Jesse Jackson in the primary.

And then there was the brief moment of awesomeness when Lloyd Bentsen blew away Quayle with his "You're no JFK".

[sueh]

155. 1980. I was 21 and voted for Jimmy Carter.

I've never voted for a Republican. My parents voted Republican but I think my mom voted for Al Gore in 2000.

[RobinA]

156. 1976

Carter/Ford. Voted for Ford. Was not a Carter fan and I liked Ford's down to Earth, sensible guy vibe. I also respected Ford's against-the-grain pardon of Nixon. Looking back, I'd do the same.

[Mad_Machine76]

159. 1996

It felt like a good time to be a Democrat when Clinton won re-election to a second term and Democrats still had a good amount of power in my State (Indiana), winning the Governors Mansion yet again after Bayh was termed out. I started following politics intensely in 1992 when Clinton was running for his first term.

[DJ Porkchop]

161. I betrayed my favorite president Jimmy Carter.

I was under the spell of my parents. It stopped after Ronnie won.