I couldn't wait to vote when I turned 21.

[MineralMan]

I remember the first election I voted in very well. I started campaigning in 1960 for JFK while a sophomore in high school and was frustrated with not being able to vote then. I had to wait until I was 21, which made no sense to me at all.

In 1966, I was in the USAF. I was living a barracks at Russian Language School at Syracuse University, and had to write a letter to the county clerk's office in the county in California where I had lived to request an absentee ballot. First, though, I had to write to request a form so I could register to vote, since I turned 21 out of the state. I started early to make sure that everything would get done in time to vote in that mid-term election. There were several steps in the process, and I didn't want to be late with any of them.

In that election Pat Brown, Jerry's dad, was running against Ronald Reagan. I cast my vote for Brown. I don't remember the other races on that ballot any longer, but I knew I did not want Ronald Reagan as Governor of California. Voting was important to me, and I didn't want to miss my very first election.

There was never a question for me regarding whether or not I would vote. How could I not vote? I don't even understand the question. Voting is a duty, a right, a privilege and a responsibility we all have. Not voting? That's unthinkable to me. It's still unthinkable to me. It simply doesn't compute at all. And yet, people don't vote, even if all they have to do is register and vote right where they live. Bizarre!

[Faux pas]

1. I didn't turn 21 until the 1970 election.

I tell everyone I know that voting is a duty, a duty to all those who fought to get the vote for everybody.

[MineralMan]

2. It doesn't seem like that is the feeling these days.

Or maybe it never was and we were exceptions, somehow. But I remember mock elections even back in my elementary school days during presidential election years. We were always excited to vote, even if our votes didn't count. I wonder if they're still doing that.

[Faux pas]

9. I remember being 'politically involved'

in elementary school through high school. We did the mock elections also. Lol, I did Like Ike when I was really young, then along came JFK and I knew I was destined to be a liberal.

My granddaughter is in HS and the area she lives in doesn't promote critical thinking. Thank the Universe, her mother (my daughter) does.

[MineralMan]

12. I remember discussing the news in social studies

classes, with clips from the newspaper, etc. That was in the 5th and 6th grades in elementary school. The teacher would read a news story and ask us to discuss it and what it meant. I don't remember any political bias on the teacher's part, either. Her goal was to teach us how to look at news stories and figure out what they meant, in terms of the world around us.

[Faux pas]

18. Yep Current Events were a big part of school back in

the good old days. Remember the Weekly Reader? That was the highlight of the school week.

[MineralMan]

21. Yup. We started getting Weekly Reader in first grade.

1951. At that time, the teacher read it aloud to us, since most of us were just learning to read. A couple of years later, I was reading the daily newspaper from cover to cover every afternoon. Our paper was an afternoon paper, and I was the first one to get to it. I remember that my father insisted that it be in the same order as when it came when he picked it up after coming home from work, so I had to make sure I got it reassembled correctly after reading it.

[Warpy]

3. My grandmother and great grandmother were Suffragettes

My first vote was against Nixon, that's how old I am. So was my second vote.

I was a typical airheaded twenty something but I knew a crook when I saw one.

[MineralMan]

5. They surely knew the importance of voting.

Today, we take it for granted, and often ignore elections. Your grandmother and great grandmother would have been incensed about that.

[Warpy]

14. Turnouts have been pretty dismal my whole life

mostly, I think, because of antiquated voting laws that make it nearly impossible for working people to cast a vote. I know it was a struggle for me for years, especially when I lived in DC and had to vote in Maryland, rushing to get there before the polls closed.

[Faux pas]

11. What excellently cool grand-moms you had Warpy.

Lol I knew one when I saw one too, just too young to vote.

[Warpy]

15. Grandparents on the other side had a cross burned on the front lawn

so it's probably genetic, that call as to who is full of shit and worth pissing off.

[Faux pas]

19. lolol

amen to that!

[LeftInTX]

37. My grandmother stole my grandfather's car

and drove to get her US citizenship.
He didn't believe that women should be citizens.
(They were from the Ottoman Empire)

[Warpy]

40. Well, supposedly the Celts either originated there

or traveled through it on their way to Europe.

She could be a very distant relative. She'd certainly fit into my family.

And good for her! Her grandpa was a fool.

[LeftInTX]

46. It was her husband not her grandfather - lol

Many of the Armenian men were kinda like that because women weren't allowed to be citizens in the Ottoman Empire. They weren't Turks, but they lived in Turkey and were subject to Turkish laws. I don't know what his rational was, but it didn't seem rational to her either.

[Warpy]

47. Well, he was a fool, too

so of course she didn't think it was rational.

Wave after wave of immigrants started their own newspapers in their own languages. In each paper were personal ads looking for a husband who had left to make his fortune, usually in the gold fields. The exception was in the Irish papers---it was the women who left.

I've always found that factoid very interesting.

[Odin2005]

43. I'm guessing Greeks, Armenians, or Lebanese?

[LeftInTX]

44. Armenian

[True Blue Door]

4. I was just a few months too young to vote for Al Gore in 2000.

Not that it would have made any difference, being in California. But it was symbolic of something.

Then when 2004 came around and I was determined to be involved, I gave money through the California Democratic Party website...and the site was hacked, my card info was stolen, and my account wiped out, no doubt by Republican dirty tricks brigades. Meanwhile the party betrayed me and itself by going with John Kerry instead of Wesley Clark, which might as well have been a declaration of surrender.

2008 was the first time where my committment aligned with the committment of the party, and produced the results worthy of us both. We should do that more often.

[MineralMan]

8. There have been many elections when things did not go

as I wished them to. Still, the importance of participating in every election has never flagged for me. It is our opportunity to make our choices known and to make them real. We have no other way to do that, so skipping an election, simply because I'm not in love with the candidate of my party is unthinkable to me. In such elections I look at the Republican opponent and know that it's still important to vote for the Democratic candidate. Any Democrat is a better choice than every Republican. Always.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. My first primary vote was for Jerry Brown for Gov along with a No on Prop 13

The General election that November had the infamous Briggs Amendment, Proposition 6 on the ballot. It said this: "Prohibit gays and supporters of gay rights from teaching in public schools."
That was defeated by the people of CA and I think of Prop 6 to this day when some weasel tells me voting does not matter.

[MineralMan]

22. I remember the Briggs Amendment, too.

It seemed to me at the time to be about the ugliest attempt at discrimination I had seen that wasn't about race, and was glad to vote against it.

It's interesting that we both voted for a Brown as governor as our first vote in an election. Pere et fils. And one of them is still Governor of California. Amazing.

[hollysmom]

7. in the 60's we were going to change the world.

It is different now. I think it is all the hyper negative ads. We have the internet and people are trying to use it to spread lies instead of information. even in a few years there was a difference. My parents had us girls first and then a gap of 10 years and they had the boys. (this is just true to my family, can't say it is all) The difference in voting is a lot, My sister and I always vote, the boys not so much. Could have been the years or even that my parents were older and didn't spend the same kind of time with them. Actually the other difference is that we always had dinner at the same time together each night and we had to talk to each other, other meals we could read and have alone. When my brothers were growing up, they had sports different times at night and never ate with us or heard adults talk about politics except on holidays.

I believe people have changed and how we get our information has changed and what is important has changed. One things I remember from when the news was 15 minutes at night, the news department on TV didn't used to have advertising, it was a public service not a profit center.

There a a million little differences,

BTW I remember that election, Colleges were free in California until Reagan. Seems like a lot of things have changed. Kids were the future worth investing in, now they are someone to be afraid of or deadbeats.

[MineralMan]

10. And we did change the world.

In many ways for the better, but in some for the worse. But we voted, and we're still voting.

[Bluenorthwest]

13. Here's an actual ad from the 1968 election. It strikes me as fairly negative and intense.....

Now follow this link and watch the ad 'The First Civil Right'.
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1968

[roamer65]

20. Meanwhile Tricky Dickie undermined peace efforts...

and ended up settling for the same terms in 1972 that LBJ wanted in 1968. Almost 27,000 American lives and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese lives later. The man was a war criminal.

It is a tragedy that this country was robbed of a President Bobby Kennedy.

[hollysmom]

49. I voted for Humphrey, he was very pro labor.

[kentuck]

16. I voted at 18 in Kentucky.

There were only a couple of states that permitted voting at 18 in the 1960's.

[MineralMan]

17. Interesting. I was not aware of that.

Now I have to go look at voting age and history on Wikipedia. Thanks for telling me.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

23. 1966 was my first vote too. And, it was for Pat Brown.

Voting is a choice in democracy. I always vote, even when I know my vote is futile.

[MineralMan]

25. Yes. We got to learn about futility just two years later.

1968 was a horrible depressing election. We even had George Wallace winning electoral votes. I was disgusted with the whole thing at the time.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

27. I voted for Eldridge Cleaver and the Peace & Freedom party in '68.

I was hoping for McCarthy, would settle for RFK, but Humphrey, LBJ's war, and the convention is what decided my vote.

Utter futility, but I would do it again.

[99Forever]

24. Give the young people candidates that address THEIR issues and problems...

... and they turn out. Fail to even TRY do a damn thing to REALLY address those issues and problems once elected? They don't buy the bullshit next time around and bother to show up.

You have it exactly backwards. Crappy candidates and policies cause people not to show up. Not that I expect that the reality will faze you.

[MineralMan]

26. Oh, there were plenty of frustrating elections

in the past. Here's the electoral map from 1968. I voted for Humphrey and mourned Bobby Kennedy.



But I voted. I always have voted. I cannot understand not voting. That was an absentee ballot, too. Then, I was stationed at an Air Force base in Maryland.

[99Forever]

28. It doesn't require that we "understand" not voting.

I've never missed a vote since 1972 when I first became eligible, including primaries, and can't comprehend a "why" either.

But we have to get passed the blame the non-voter crap and really do what it takes to get them engaged. I suspect that what that is, is LISTENING to them and then ACTUALLY FIGHTING tooth and nail to address their issues. Just giving lip-service during the run ups to elections doesn't cut it.

The powers that be in the Democratic Party have steadfastly REFUSED to do that, instead we get nothing but empty promises and utter disappointment. My experiences trying to "work from the inside" during '08, '10, and '12 showed me that it's next to impossible to get anything thru the entrenched establishment of even the local party "elite." I won't waste my time doing that again.

[MineralMan]

29. I'm not talking about "we." I'm talking about me.

I cannot understand not voting. You may have a different opinion, but I will express my opinion, and it is just that. I'm talking about my inability to understand not voting.

[kentuck]

30. I've never missed an election...

Not even when I was in Vietnam.

[MineralMan]

31. Thank you for that.

And there were some ugly choices in some of those elections, indeed.

[F4lconF16]

50. Unfortunately, that inability

Or perhaps unwillingness to understand not voting blinds you to what needs to be done in order to get millenials and other non-voters engaged.

As has been said many times by myself and others on here, it doesn't matter right now that not voting was a poor decision with a stupid rationale behind it--it matters that we listen to and understand why those who didn't, chose not to. If we cannot do that, we will not get their votes in 2016.

Many people on this board have a hard time seeing the world from the perspective of a "disillusioned" young voter (quotes because the truly disillusioned vote anyways, without hope of change). Unfortunately, we are dependent on your understanding in order for the party to address the needs and concerns of younger voters. I'm not going to go into how to address them (it has already been said, many times in many threads), but I would like to implore you to work on your inability to understand them. If you and other Democrats continue to dismiss their reasoning and instead write them off without truly attempting to see things from their eyes, we will have no hope in 2016.

[Johonny]

38. But of course there are non-partisan offices and ballot measures nearly every election

so the "I don't like either candidate" line really never captures anything. People don't vote and election dialogue is controlled by who is a likely voter. If you don't like what the candidates are talking about it is almost always because they are all targeting the narrow band of middle class undecided swing voters. Why do they target them? Because they look at the statistics on who exactly votes. The more money you have the more likely you vote, do you own a home, what is your age, education, income... they know who votes and target those people. I you want candidates that address your issues then you need your demographic to become a likely voter. Not just likely every 4 years, likely every damn year. Heck twice a year in primaries.

Even if you hate the candidates there's nearly always something or someone to vote for. I voted to lower prison sentences on drug offenses. No candidates involved in that. Just pure politics. Things like bond measures, propositions, judges, sheriffs,... on nearly ballot.

[Chathamization]

53. Yes, "both candidates are the same" shows a great deal of ignorance. Most ballots have a ton of

things to vote on, even if you do think that the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial/congressional/senatorial candidates are the same (though thinking those candidates are the same is usually a sign of ignorance as well).

Though from my experience, even a lot of those who do show up to vote don't really know anything about many of the candidates/issues on the ballot.

[CrispyQ]

32. My best friend in high school worked for the Gary Hart for Senate campaign.

Their HQ were located across the street from where I worked so I joined up too. We were also debate partners & our topics were mostly political, so that's how I caught the politics bug. However, most of the other kids in our class did not have the same zeal for politics & when I went to college the following year, most of the students there were also not political.

[Codeine]

33. My first vote was for Dukakis, the least inspiring candidate ever.

And I was still thrilled to do it, because democracy.

I didn't need weed legalization or excitement. I didn't need to be pandered to. I didn't decide he was too old and demand a younger, fresher candidate. I voted because that's my fucking right as a citizen, and I'm happy to have and to exercise that right. I've never missed an election and I don't intend to do so in the future.

[steve2470]

34. amen

My first vote was for Jimmy Carter, who, I'm sure, many on the left disdained. He was better than Ford, and a 1,000,000,000 % better than that ahole Ronnie Reagan in 1980.

In life, we have to choose our best option from a usually imperfect and uninspiring palette of options. Voting, to me, is just like that. Do you think in 1976, I felt inspired to vote for Carter ? No, I did not. I was an 18 year old kid and to me, he was an old man from a party of "old men". No one talked about things of interest to me, but I knew the Republicans were bad news. I grew up with tricky Dick and Watergate.

You nailed it, Codeine.

[MineralMan]

48. Exactly.

[F4lconF16]

51. Your attitude in this post captures one

Of the things I least like about these threads. There is a very strong undercurrent of "Well, I voted when I was their age, and I'm better than them because of that." It bothers me because it indicates a lack of understanding, of not even attempting to see things from a different perspective.

I'm glad that you felt the need to vote without a strong candidate. I'm glad you didn't need particular issues to exercise your rights as a citizen. The thing is, that isn't going to help the issue we have facing us now, which is voters that are apathetic for lack of choice and representation. That it worked out for you is great. Now is when we need to address their concerns. No matter how strongly you disagree with their decision, the fact is, they still made that decision not to vote. We need to understand why, and the attitude in posts like this feels almost proudly ignorant and lacking in perception.

[steve2470]

35. good OP, MM ! nt

[RebelOne]

36. The first time I ever voted after I turned 21 was for JFK.

I was not into politics then, but have been a Democrat ever since.

[bigwillq]

39. I couldn't wait either

And I haven't missed an election since.

[mcar]

41. Me too MM

Proudly cast my first presidential vote to re-elect Carter. Obviously it didn't turn out that way .

I've voted in every election since.

[Odin2005]

42. I turned 18 in April 2004.

I was an avid Deaniac and learned first-hand how the Corporate Media can destroy any candidate who threatens the status quo. It was then that I realized that a genuine progressive would never be allowed to win the Democratic primary. No matter how hard we work within the system the system will never give us what we want. The system must be overthrown.

[fizzgig]

45. i registered to vote a few days after my 18th birthday and was so excited to do so

my first election was in '99. i know i voted but can't remember anything about it, although the interwebs say my county extended our open space tax that year.

but i vividly remember casting my vote for gore in 2000 and the devastation of that election.

[Cha]

52. Great Americans suffered and died for the right to Vote.. they didn't give up.. they were fighters.

It took me awhile to appreciate this.. I didn't vote until 2000 .. but, I'm trying to make up for my former apathy.

The Numero Uno issue is the number one reason to vote for Dems..