tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3906349739814240782.post182715650711299800..comments2014-01-16T05:34:35.872-08:00Comments on If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.: an opinion poll, of sortsanne mancinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08020711868764662709noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3906349739814240782.post-89820436329818523162012-11-21T06:01:00.723-08:002012-11-21T06:01:00.723-08:00Andrew, I still feel terribly guilty about not vot...Andrew, I still feel terribly guilty about not voting the year James A. Rhodes was re-elected governor of Ohio. It was especially horrible to us students living in Kent so soon after May 4th. <br />anne mancinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08020711868764662709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3906349739814240782.post-9338195798037594042012-11-17T09:04:29.853-08:002012-11-17T09:04:29.853-08:00My own voting-shame story involves not voting for ...My own voting-shame story involves not voting for Gore against Bush when I was at OU in 2000. The line outside Baker Center just off-campus was too long (I hadn't changed my registration to Athens County like Julie had, and hadn't gotten an absentee ballot for Summit, so I had to vote provisional.), so I went back to the dorms, sans voting. <br />Ohio went strongly for Bush in the end, of course, but not being able to say (and know) that I did what I could have to defeat our country's worst president, still rankles. <br />And so I've proudly voted in each midterm and general election since I moved to Maryland. My candidates don't always win (till this year!), but I feel better about the whole thing.Andrewnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3906349739814240782.post-30860794594564629762012-11-08T05:02:41.002-08:002012-11-08T05:02:41.002-08:00I think you said it very well, Ben. It's impo...I think you said it very well, Ben. It's important to be "part of the great mass of voting public insistent on making their voices heard".<br /><br />I talked to Jules about this yesterday, and was delighted to find that her childhood memories of accompanying me to vote are virtually identical to the ones I have. She said being there seemed very solemn and important to her. (And she loved those old curtained voting booths, too!)anne mancinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08020711868764662709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3906349739814240782.post-2354242555626034682012-11-07T09:59:24.861-08:002012-11-07T09:59:24.861-08:00Another interesting post! I'm jealous of your...Another interesting post! I'm jealous of your "voting memories" because I really have none. I guess it really is a rite of passage to adulthood. In my childhood, voting simply meant a day off from school. I cast my first vote to re-elect Richard Nixon. I was a single-issue voter that year because of the "1H" draft card in my pocket. I figured a standing president could get us out of Vietnam faster than a newly-elected one. But the whole Nixon thing sort of put me off politics for a while, so I became a non-voter, until Tom and Julie shamed me into voting again years later. I couldn't handle them "being disappointed" in me. (Works both ways, eh kids?) :)<br />I also liked voting at the shelter house in Kent. I felt like we were all on a mission together, conspiring to accomplish great things for the country. I remember how disappointed I was/we were when Bush won in 2000, and then was re-elected in 2004. But things have gone well since then, and out here in Maryland where we don't know anyone, the absentee ballot gets the job done efficiently. But I agree that something is lost when you're not part of the great mass of voting public insistent on making their voices heard.Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07232444223492532562noreply@blogger.com