My First Vote, What Was Yours?

[ThomWV]

It was in 1968. I was in Viet Nam up in the tri-border area at some firebase or another - I don't remember which one anymore. It was an absentee ballot of course. When I joined the Army two years earlier I was in Miami, Florida so that is where I was registered.

Nixon was President, Humphrey was the non-anti-war Democrat running against him, George Wallace was an independent. Nixon was more liberal than most Democrats today and Humphrey wasn't an inch to the left of him. Wallace, who had been the Governor of Alabama, ran as a pro-segregation independent with hatred for blacks as his sole platform plank.

I voted for Humphrey, Nixon won. I've voted in every election for which I have been eligible ever since.

Which one was yours, where were you, what was your situation? How did you see the election?

On Edit: Nixon was not the President during the '69 Presidential election, Johnson was. Strange that I had forgotten proudly serving under him when he was Commander In Chief.