How old were you when you first registered & voted? Did your parents/elders take you with them to vote as a kid?

[irisblue]

My mom took me to register to vote a few days after I turned 18; yes all 4 of us kids went with Mom to vote.

2 of my siblings are now multi year poll workers.
One niece is a first time poll worker this year.
I held my foster daughter on my hip as she watched me vote for Obama in 2008.

🗳

on more thought, I voted absentee in November 76 for Jimmy Carter because I was away at college. I called my family precinct, they sent me a ballot, I filled it out & sent it back. Getting an absentee ballot for students then was pretty easy as my aged memory recalls

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Registered at 21, as require by law, way back then. Didn't get to vote for president until 1972 at 24.

[CanonRay]

4. Same for me, except I was 21 in 1972.

I did go with my mother to see her vote.

[moonscape]

19. It was required? I didn't

remember that! But don’t remember registering either. Must have then in 1971.

[sinkingfeeling]

23. Had to be 21 by law to vote.

[moonscape]

34. Yes, I knew that, it was

that registering was mandatory that I didn’t recall.

[whopis01]

58. I think they meant that 21 was required

not that registering was required.

As opposed to it being 18 now.

[moonscape]

60. Thanks! Whew!

[lark]

2. I registered to vote when I moved at age 18.

My parents never took us to vote.

[Mossfern]

3. I regestered myself at age 21

Even though I had worked on the McCarthy campaign, at 20Years old, I was too young to vote in that election.

[raging moderate]

20. Yes! This is just what happened to me!

And I made phone calls, trying to sound older so people would see me as a fellow voter. What a thrill it was to actually become a voter when I turned 21!

[DURHAM D]

5. My mother was a member of the League of Women Voters.

She worked the polls every election from the 1940s until the 2000s. The family joke is that us kids all grew up playing under the voting check-in table at the local community center.

[Glorfindel]

6. I registered at age 17 while a senior in high school.

This was in 1963. Georgia was one of only two states at that time where 18-year-olds could vote. I didn't actually get to vote until November of 1964 (for LBJ, of course), by which time I was 19. My parents did take me with them to vote, but I wasn't allowed in the voting booth. Everything was done on enormous paper ballots back then, and voting took quite a while. Thanks for an interesting question!

[Dennis Donovan]

7. I registered to vote and for the draft on the same day (18). 1983

Since Mom's polling place was my elementary school, she would pull me out of class and I would vote with her (it was one of the older NY voting machines with the curtain so she would let me pull the lever to open and close the curtain. ).

My first vote as an adult was for Walter Mondale ('84). He got creamed, of course, but I never considered it a wasted vote.

[DeepWinter]

15. Same here

Registered to vote and for the draft, 1984.

[Rhiannon12866]

61. My Dad did the same thing with me except I was a preschooler.

He'd take me in the voting booth with him, lift me up and let me push the levers for him (of course he told me which levers to push) - I have no idea who I voted for back then, but at least I knew how to operate the levers and all when my time came.

[snowybirdie]

8. Registered at 21 as was the voting age

at the time. Used my address. 3 weeks later, moved six blocks away. and tried to vote in my new polling place. The poll judge was my new landlady and she said I hadn't lived there long enough to vote there. So I drove back to my old neighborhood and voted. It was a presidential election. Hope it was legal and my vote for Lyndon Johnson counted!

[ClimateHawk]

9. I registered at age 18 in April 2008.

I registered at my high school. 2008 was the first election I voted in.

[Eugene]

10. Registered at 18.

Just moved to town as a college freshman and registered weeks before the local election.

I remember going to the polling place with my mother.
I had to wait outside the booth as she voted.

[murielm99]

11. I registered at 21.

I took all three of my kids with me when I voted. One year, my oldest thought I said, "We are going to ride on a boat." I tried to show her what I was doing rather than explain it.

[arlyellowdog]

12. Guess there's a lot of us who got "clean for Gene"

But couldn’t vote because we had to wait until we were 21. My kids couldn’t believe it. They asked if I supported RFK. I told them I was too young to vote in a primary. I was telling my kids about sitting with my future husband waiting to hear his fate in the draft lottery, but being too young to vote. It kind of shows college kids they are empowered to save the country now.

[BlueTsunami2018]

13. I registered and voted at 18.

My parents always took me to vote as a kid and I couldn’t wait to vote myself. I’ve never missed an election, primary or otherwise since then. It was 1988.

[MaryMagdaline]

14. First presidential vote was 1980 for Jimmy Carter. 21 years old

Just missed the cut in 1976. Turned 18 in 1977. So I would have voted in state and local elections until the big one in 1980.
My mother worked at the polls and belonged to League of Women Voters. Never took us to vote but Election Day was a huge deal in my family.

[BigMin28]

16. As senior

In high school, we were all given voters registration cards by our Civics teacher. Whether we filled them out was up to us. As I turned 18 in October, I was able to register to vote in the 1980 Presidential election. Proudly voted for President Jimmy Carter.

My mother used to take us with her to vote. My father always had to hurry before or after work, as he always worked 8 to 6.

[Bettie]

17. Registered a few days after I turned 18

Grandma and Great-Grandma took me to vote every year. It never occurred to me that voting wasn't mandatory!

[ProfessorGAC]

18. Registered At 18

Voted the following November for Howlett who was running again Thompson.
Thompson seemed shady from the jump. He's considered by many here in Illinois to be an even bigger crook than the governors who got caught & did jail tine.
I went by myself to register & to vote.
My first POTUS vote was for Carter.

[Permanut]

21. Voted for Nixon..

First presidential election in 1968.

Been trying to make amends for it ever since.

[irisblue]

22. Sometimes we learn slowly, sometimes it is quick.

[BigMin28]

27. Nixon

would be livid if he were around to see what tsf has gotten away with today.

[CTyankee]

24. IIRC, I had to be 21. I voted in my first presidential election for John F. Kennedy.

[LakeArenal]

25. I was at UW Madison.

Having a circulation problem and was actually in the hospital. I had to get permission to leave.

Circulation problems conclusion:

My jeans were too tight. Two days in hospital. Can you imagine that bill today????

[Dulcinea]

26. Sometime in the mid-1980s.

I was 21 or 22. I've voted in every national election since 1988, plus many local & statewide ones. Now I help others register, pester my daughters' friends about voting, & am in the process of finishing 1200 postcards to send to GA, PA, MI, & WI.

My parents voted regularly, but never took us to the polls. I made sure both my daughters registered as soon as they were old enough. Here in GA, you can register at 17 1/2, but you can't vote till age 18. My older daughter proudly voted for Biden in 2020. She was crushed when Hillary lost. My younger one first voted in the 2022 midterms. This will be her first presidential election.

[OLDMDDEM]

28. Registered at 21. No, my parents did not take any of us kids to the polls when they voted.

[MineralMan]

29. It was 1966. I was 21.

I was in the USAF, based in Turkey at the time. I registered by mail at my permanent address in California, and then requested an absentee ballot in time to vote in the November election that year.

You'd think that might be complicated, but the military made it easy to register and vote at that time. Very helpful.

You had to be 21 to vote then.

[redstatebluegirl]

30. I was 18.

I registered as soon as I could. Voting was very important in my family. My parents got dressed up, we all dressed like we were going to Church. We drove down the road and picked up my Grandparents and went to town to vote.

It was an experience, it was impressed upon us how important voting was. All three of us never miss a chance to vote. My sister always took her kids with them to vote just like we were.

I have only missed one election in my long life and that was when I had emergency surgery.

As Grandpa said, every chance we get to vote is a gift many people do not have.

[Meadowoak]

31. Registered and voted at 18. Never missed a vote since, and I'm 62. Went with my parents to vote every time, since I

Learned to walk.

[redstatebluegirl]

32. I registered at age 18

I registered as soon as I could. Voting was very important in my family. My parents got dressed up, we all dressed like we were going to Church. We drove down the road and picked up my Grandparents and went to town to vote.

It was an experience, it was impressed upon us how important voting was. All three of us never miss a chance to vote. My sister always took her kids with them to vote just like we were.

I have only missed one election in my long life and that was when I had emergency surgery.

As Grandpa said, every chance we get to vote is a gift many people do not have.

[Basso8vb]

33. Registered at 18

Mom took me with her to vote for Carter in 1976 when I was 5. My parents were more than happy to teach and talk to me about politics at a young age.

[Deuxcents]

35. Back in the last century, we weren't able to vote until age 21 and I registered then.

1968 was a very turbulent time..assassinations, Viet Nam, protests..that’s pretty much when I picked my side and only got more involved. 🗳️

[Jilly_in_VA]

36. I was 21 because that was law at the time

I vaguely remember my mom taking me with her to vote when I was little, but after that it was just another school day, with the gym blocked off and no PE. We were aware, however, that something momentous was taking place. We'd worn campaign buttons at school and had mock elections.

By the time my kids came along, Election Day was a school holiday, so of course I took my kids to vote, all of them, which was sometimes a handful as there were three of them. Sometimes I let their dad take one of them, usually the oldest who is ASD. We felt it was important. I would let one of them pull the final lever that opened the curtain of the voting booth. And yes, we have always been Democrats.

[irisblue]

38. The 1968 mock election had Humphrey, Nixon & Wallace

I kinda sorta understood Nixon cuz of Poppa D being a rock ribbed republican, but the oddity of my fellow students whose family supported Wallace, that still is off to me.

[NNadir]

37. 18. My father was a Republican; my mother what today we'd call...

...a "swing voter." They always took my brother and I with them when they went to vote and they always voted.

A happy memory is when my mother would get in the car and inform him that she "canceled" his vote, which would get him a little mad and insisting that his vote could not be "canceled."

My father came from a long line of rigid Republicans. His aunts didn't speak to him for about three years because he told them he voted for Harry Truman, which I believe represents the only time in his life he voted for a Democrat.

Obviously our political arguments often grew heated, but in spite of that, I loved him very much.

[Ping Tung]

39. I registered as a Democrat to vote in 1965. when I turned 21.

[LeftInTX]

40. My parents voted by mail because we were military.

[LoisB]

41. Registered at age 21 (before the 26th Amendment); voted for RFK in the primary, HHH in the general.

Took myself to a fire station (if I remember correctly) to do so.

[electric_blue68]

67. Wow, you got to vote for RFK. I was waiting w excitement to volunteer for him in the...

NYS/NYC Primary which being after California...

(still hurts after all these years)

I did volunteer for HHH.

[LoisB]

68. Yes. It was an honor. Then saw his assassination on television as it happened.

[TheKentuckian]

42. 17 since I turned 18 in time for the general.

My mother took her a time or two when I was really little but mostly not but we were engaged as a family despite her being registered as an Independent.

I was volunteering well before I could vote.

[MoonchildCA]

43. I turned 18 in 1980.

I voted for Jimmy Carter.

I wasn’t taken to the polls, but my dad was an avid voter, and a staunch liberal.

I always took my daughter with me to vote though. When she was school age, I would pick her up from school and vote on the way home.

She turned 18 in 2007, and cast her first vote for Obama.

[Golden Raisin]

44. 21 for me which was the law then.

As a very young child my Mom took me into the voting booth and showed me how voting and the big clunky machines back then worked. Both parents instilled the concept that voting was a sacred rite/duty. To this day I vote in every election even if it's just for dog-catcher.

[Retrograde]

45. Turned 20 just after the 26th amendment went into effect

Registered to vote that summer, in time for the 1972 presidential election. My grandfather told me at the time to never vote for a Republican, advice I have followed ever since.

[lees1975]

46. I registered to vote on my birthday when I turned 18 and one month later, I voted for Jimmy Carter.

I registered as a Democrat in what was then overwhelmingly Republican Arizona.

[Elessar Zappa]

47. Registered right after I turned 18, which was December of 2001.

No, I don’t remember my parents taking me with them when they voted. I imagine they did when I was a small child but I’m not sure. My first vote for President was for John Kerry in 2004. I was in a severe depression for three weeks when he lost. It was bad, I couldn’t get out of bed, I wasn’t eating much, not bathing. I hated Bush and was convinced he was going to declare a dictatorship. I also believed that the Bush administration was behind 9/11, which, of course, is ridiculous but hey! I was still rather young and dumb.

[republianmushroom]

48. Registered myself age 21 in 1961.

Had to be 21 years old to vote.

[maxsolomon]

49. 18th Birthday

Yes. I remember being in a curtained booth with my dad.

[lamp_shade]

50. 30 and voted for Jimmy Carter.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

51. Senior year of high school

The school had a day when all the Seniors could register to vote and all the guys
could register for Selective Service.

[Island Blue]

52. I was 18 when I registered,

but wasn’t able to vote in a presidential election until I was 21. I don’t remember my parents taking me to vote as a child, but they might have on occasion.

[rsdsharp]

53. It was 1972. I was 18, and registered when my mother and I went to vote in the Iowa primary.

The nice lady asked what party I wanted on my registration. My mother quickly said Republican. When I gently corrected her and told the poll worker that I wanted to register as a Democrat, my mother said, “Your dad and I thought your brother was going to be the radical!”

But, as Don Imus said, “If Nixon was the one in ‘68, he’ll be a bigger one in ‘72.”. He was right, and I knew it; even at age 18.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

54. 1971 was when the voting age was changed to 18.

I wasn’t old enough to vote for McGovern. I voted for the first time when I was in college. I went with my mother when I was a kid to watch her vote. My parents were rabid Republicans who preached Republicanism but it didn’t take. They repeated over and over again about how horrible the Democrats were. I loved JFK and couldn’t stand Nixon so that helped me be more of a sceptic. I was more of an independent at first, then a solid Democrat after the Clarence Thomas hearings. My twin brother is a solid Republican who used to dislike Trump but will now vote for him. My

[Trailrider1951]

55. I was 20 years old

It was 1972, the year the age limit for voting was dropped from 21 to 18. Had they not dropped the age limit, I would have been 21 about 3 weeks after the election, and unable to vote in that election. I voted for McGovern and all the Democrats down the ballot. And I've been a Democrat all the years since.

[WarGamer]

56. Registered at 18, voted at 19... for Reagan. Cuz... parents.

By the time 1988 came along, I proudly voted for Dukakis and never went red again.

[Attilatheblond]

57. Registered at 18 and yes, mom took me with her several times when she voted

Also, our schools were polling places, so I grew up seeing it unfold every election day from 1960 on.

Grandmother was a polling place judge from the day women were allowed to sign up for the position. It was the only job she held outside of her home, as she was pretty crippled up from a broken back in her infancy. Too crippled to march with the Suffragettes, she was gonna make damned sure no male polling place official in her precinct tried to dissuade any female from exercising her franchise.

Grandma was in the hospital the day before primary day in her home state in 1960. Checked herself out the night before election day and & had Grandpa drive her home so she could get to the polling place next morning, she had him drive her there. He returned home and was headed for bed, as he had worked the graveyard shift at the local newspaper; he always covered for people on vacation & could do any job in the place. Knock on the door, out of breath young man told Gramps to get to the polling place, quick! Grandma had collapsed and was gone by the time he had traveled the three blocks to the church that was used for voting.

The old girl literally 'died with her boots on'. In my family, WE VOTE. There are no acceptable excuses allowed.

[electric_blue68]

64. Oh, that's sad. Also imoortant she had the job!

[Attilatheblond]

70. Our family was not sad with the way she passed. We just figured it was the best way for her.

If anything, most of us were damned proud. And I kinda hoped her soul was along for the ride when my daughter asked me to pick her up from school so she could avoid the long city bus ride and get to city hall faster to register to vote on her 18th birthday.

[Raftergirl]

59. Registered when I was 18 and voted for the first time when I was 18. I've voted very year since then. 50 years of

voting, I vote in every election no matter if it’s local, state or national elections. Also always vote on school district and library budgets every year.

I don’t recall either of my parents taking me with them to vote, I’m pretty sure they voted on their way home from work or after dinner.

My husband has been a poll worker since he retired 4 years ago.

[OnionPatch]

62. I was 19 when I first voted in an election

I usually drove my grandma around to the doctor and such, and I drove her to the polls that day after lunch. At lunch she kept telling all her friends that she was going with me to vote for the first time for Ronald Reagan. I never told her I was voting for him, she just assumed. Wrongly. I walked in and voted for Jimmy Carter, as planned.

[electric_blue68]

63. I was in the *very First Year* of 18 yr old voters in 1971...

Last edited Thu Sep 5, 2024, 03:24 AM - Edit history (1)

I was so excited for all of us 18 yr olds.

Though a bit disappointed bc I wanted my first vote to in be the Presidential year ('72).
I think 1971 was a very off year voting wise.

My parents never took me into the voting booth. They did always vote. They were liberal Democrats. My dad had me going w him around our apt building slipping local election flyers under our neighbors doors by the time I was ?12 yrs old. So I got early start in politic stuff.

I almost became an Independent because the first two candidates I volunteered for were Liberal Republicans: Mayor Lindsey and Rep Charles Goodel.

Why? The had some more liberal positions on social issues than the Democratic candidates. Then I found out I couldn't vote in The Primaries if I was I an Independent; so I registered as a Democrat, and never voted for a Republican.

I really miss the old voting machines w the curtain, and the big red lever. It made such a satisfying 'kerchunk' when you swung it over to cast your vote.

We were also lucky that our voting place was a school about 2 1/2 blocks away.

[MistakenLamb]

65. 18 years old in 2002 in the midterms registered myself and voted at my library

[wnylib]

66. I didn't vote until I was 21 because I was 18 in 1968

and the voting age didn't change until after that year's election.

The polling site for our district when I was a child was in the basement of my grade school. So I saw my mother and our neighbors and the parents of my classmates coming in and out of the school to vote. My father voted on his way home from work.

When I was in high school, back when the old voting machines with levers to pull were used, our civics class had a voting machine brought in so that we could see how they worked.

[Niagara]

69. I wasn't old enough to vote for President Clinton for his first term.

I was eligible (age wise) to vote in my first presidential election for Clinton's 2nd term.


We didn't have internet back then. We didn't have paper ballots that the voter inserted into a tally machine like we have today either.


My first presidential voting experience was walking into this metal contraption and pulling a lever to close the curtain. I had to pull a lever to vote for President Clinton. It was the only lever that I pulled that day because I had no clue who else I should be voting for.


Now with the access of the internet, I can find out who's who on the local district ballot and I vote in every single election and not just presidential elections.


Edited to add: My mom took me to the building where she voted when I was young. I sat in a chair and waited for her.