WWTBAM Bored

My first poll. Here goes...

I remember going to the polling station, although I can't recall any particular trip there as being the first time. I don't remember ever going into the voting booth with them.

Well, my first election ever was Tuesday and I did share the same opinions as my parents (not to mention we went to the polls together, so we voted "together" in more ways than one.)

I have a vague memory of going to vote with my mom when I was small. Walking into my elementary school when it wasn't school hours. The voting partitions (pretty close to what we still use where I now live) with the tables being about nose level for me. Oddly, though, I don't recall my own first vote, which one would think would be more important to me.

They brought us along when we were too young to be left home alone. (Mom has never driven, so she and Dad had to go together.) We never got out of the car, though; they did not want to drag four/five obnoxious brats (depending on what year we are talking about) into the polls...

I do not recall ever going with my parents when they voted (as a child).

When my son and I were waiting in line before our polling place opened, I reminded him that this is the second time that he got to help me vote for President. In his 18th day as a resident of the United States, he went with my wife and I to vote in 2000.

In 2004, we decided to go vote after work before one of us would go get the kids from the babysitters. We felt bad when we waited for over 3 hours in line to vote.

I don't remember my parents taking me to vote.

I took the girls to vote when they were little, but they enjoy overseeing the at home absentee voting.

I answered "Other." I do not remember ever going to the polls, although my Dad told me that I did at least once (younger than age 4 or 5, I know.)

Our polling place happened to be our next-door neighbors' garage -- I'm not sure how that worked, although I do know Mr. M. was a firefighter & probably active in local politics! When I was 6 (1964), I asked my Mom to take me along when she went to vote. I had recently become aware of politics & voting & such because of the Kennedy assassination & some other things*, & was just fascinated by the whole thing. Unfortunately, I fell asleep waiting for her to be ready -- and she went over & voted without me!!!! I remember crying my little heart out when I woke & realized I'd missed it! Mom had no idea "voting" was that important to me (& yes, I forgave her ... eventually ) The following year, we moved to another town & the polls weren't right next door. I didn't enter a voting booth again till 1976, when I was 18.

* Other things = while riding the school bus home from 1st grade, I eavesdropped on a conversation between a bunch of "big kids" (5th & 6th graders.) And I learned that "If Barry Goldwater (the Republican candidate that year) became President -- we would have to go to school 6 days a week including Saturday!!!! I have no idea (now!) whether Goldwater ever indicated any such thing -- but I did know that I had at least 11 more years of school ahead of me, and that up until that time kids had only gone to school 5 days a week & I darn sure didn't want to be the in the first wave of Saturday Schoolkids!!! And at that moment, I gave my heart to the Democratic Party & have never wavered.

My Grandma, who later came to live with us, was a staunch Democrat & active in St. Louis & then in Pennsylvania -- I learned at her knee & tagged along w/ her during the Humphrey & McGovern campaigns -- to my parents' occasional consternation

For several of my childhood years, we had the precinct polling place in our home. We had a large room at the front of the house that had its own separate entrance, which was probably the only requirement in our relatively small community. My dad usually served as one of the election officials, and I remember hanging around before and after school hours. In the evening, once the polls closed, my dad and the other officials would hand-count the paper ballots and phone the totals to the election board.

My folks always made a BIG DEAL out of voting, and I don't think I've missed more than 2 or 3 elections (local, state, national) in the 36 years I've been eligible to vote. I started taking my kids to the polls ASAP -- and even have a photo of DD on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Dallas when she was barely 3 weeks old. Both of my kids are political junkies, and take their voting very seriously. #1Son is currently at Air Force basic training in TX, and took it upon himself to ensure several members of his flight got their absentee ballots filed.

I figure, if you don't vote you can't complain. I like to complain.