The First Time You Voted

[Quackers]

Missed out on voting in the European Elections of '09, my 18th birthday was only a few months after that vote. So my first vote was in the General Election for the following year. I went for the local UKIP candidate. I'm in a Tory stronghold so my vote wasn't very powerful. In fact, I have just checked my constituancy and it's forebearer. The last time it was anything other than the Conservative Party was over 100 years ago.

 

[Camikaze]

2010 federal election, from the Australian Consulate in Istanbul, about 15 floors up overlooking the Bosphorus. Had the Greens first, preferenced Labor, and put the One Nation candidate last. The Liberals retained the seat. Similar story with below the line voting for the Upper House.

 

[luiz]

2002, voted for José Serra, the Social Democratic candidate, who was running against evil personified, Lula of the Workers' Party. Evil won.

I've been voting for 12 years and all my candidates for President, Governor and Mayor were defeated every single time.

 

[Ajidica]

I've been voting for 12 years and all my candidates for President, Governor and Mayor were defeated every single time.

Perhaps you should start voting for the person you want to lose. Seems like that might work better.

 

[bhsup]

1988. For the glory of George H.W. Bush!

I need to amend this answer. That was my first Presidential election, but I did vote in 1986, it's just that there weren't any "biggie" things that stick out. Biggest I guess would have been voting for Ike Skelton for congressional representative.

IIRC, I also voted for John Ashcroft for Governator in 1988.

 

[luiz]

Perhaps you should start voting for the person you want to lose. Seems like that might work better.

Probably! Even my candidates for the students council back in my Uni days were defeated every time.

 

[shadowplay]

Ontario NDP, 2003.

 

[Tee Kay]

I would have postal-voted in the 2011 Thai general elections but they neglected to send the ballot.

 

[Josu]

Basque parliamentary election, 1998

 

[Lohrenswald]

I think the first time I voted was 379 days ago.

After picking up the ballot and heading for the ballot box, I was intercepted by a man with severe hearing disability. His volum of voice was inversely proportional with his ability to hear.

As it turns out, none of the members of the party I voted for made it to the national assembly, and I have been kind of poltically apathic since, as I assume non of the reperesentatives will do what I want.

 

[Antilogic]

As it turns out, none of the members of the party I voted for made it to the national assembly, and I have been kind of poltically apathic since, as I assume non of the reperesentatives will do what I want.

Anyone who feels this way is now free to spoil the ballots in a hilarious fashion. I still remember writing in Gary Busey for about 25 different local positions.

 

[Flying Pig]

The downside to deliberately spoiling your ballot is that it makes you indistinguishable from people who just get it wrong out of stupidity, and it doesn't send any sort of message unless enough people do it to really make the statistics stand out. Voting for a ridiculous party with no chance of winning is a much better way of protesting.

 

[Antilogic]

The downside to deliberately spoiling your ballot is that it makes you indistinguishable from people who just get it wrong out of stupidity, and it doesn't send any sort of message unless enough people do it to really make the statistics stand out. Voting for a ridiculous party with no chance of winning is a much better way of protesting.

I agree, but unfortunately there are pretty strict ballot rules in the US that prevent a lot of third parties from getting on the ballot. It is not uncommon to see a bunch of people running in local races unopposed, or only Democrats and Republicans on the ballots. Even in high-profile presidential races, high-profile third parties like the Greens and Libertarians rarely get onto the ballot in every state in the country.

 

[Flying Pig]

I see, I didn't realise it worked like that - in the UK, there are practically no restrictions on who can stand in an election.

I like the quotation in your signature, by the way.

 

[downtown]

I turned 18 in 2005, and the only thing I voted for then was a local school tax initiative.

My first vote that mattered was in 2006, when I voted for Ted Strickland to beat one of the biggest jokes in Ohio history, Ken Blackwell, for Governor. I've hit every election since.

My dumbest vote so far was voting for Rahm Emanuel for Chicago Mayor.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I agree, but unfortunately there are pretty strict ballot rules in the US that prevent a lot of third parties from getting on the ballot. It is not uncommon to see a bunch of people running in local races unopposed, or only Democrats and Republicans on the ballots. Even in high-profile presidential races, high-profile third parties like the Greens and Libertarians rarely get onto the ballot in every state in the country.

I see, I didn't realise it worked like that - in the UK, there are practically no restrictions on who can stand in an election.

Yep, it's nice to have a system whereby anyone who pays the nomination fees and gets the minimum number of signatures on the nomination papers can run as an Independent candidate. Sometimes they end up winning.

And next year I anticipate yet another litany of excuses from Stephen Harper why he won't let Elizabeth May participate in the televised leaders' debates...

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

2014 GOP primaries in Kentucky. I voted for Matt Bevin over Mitch McConnell.

 

[Bootstoots]

My first vote was in 2008. I was going to college in Iowa at the time and I drove there at the beginning of January to caucus for Obama. My precinct ended up giving Obama most of the vote, shutting out Hillary Clinton, and giving Joe Biden more than 1/4 of all the tiny number of Iowa state-level delegates he won (or would have had he stayed in the race). I also voted for him in the general election in November.

That was the first and last year that participating in the political process was any fun for me. I cast an inconsequential ballot in Portland when I lived there in 2010 (all the Democrats won by large margins of course), and another inconsequential ballot in a mostly rural area of central Illinois in 2012 (Obama obviously won the presidential vote; all the other races on the ballot were easily won by Republicans and most were uncontested).

This time I'll probably vote for a weird mix of Greens (mostly write-in), a Libertarian or two (at least I agree with them on civil liberties and social issues), and Democrats wherever it matters or no third parties are on the ballot and no write-ins have registered. It won't have any more significance than any major-party vote.

 

[metatron]

The Federal Diet election '98 was shortly after my 18th birthday.

Voted PDS for party list (they got like 0.8* in Lower Saxony and 5.1 nationally - 36 seats).
And i voted for some Green person i didn't know for constituence. That person obviously didn't win. The SPD incumbent did with a ginourmous margin.

*Akin to "don't blame me - i voted labour" this means that i'm among the 0.8% of Lower Saxons (or west Germans in general) who are least to blame for the fabled German wage depression.
It would be awefully nice if this would be appreciated at times by the people who percieve me as an evul conservative in those derpy Euro debates we have every now and then...

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The federal Liberals have apparently raised the issue of mandatory voting in their recent policy retreat.

I predict another round of the "39 Acceptable Voter IDs" argument to come out of this, with some claiming that homeless people really shouldn't have the right to vote, etc.