GET OUT THE VOTE

My dad's mother was born in 1889. . Mom's mother was born in 1905. The 19th amendment, votes for women, was passed in 1919. So they were never without the right to vote. How often they voted I never thought to ask. Especially grandma Heaton, I was all of 18 when she passed. 

Fast forward three years and I turned 21. Around 1970 or so the age to register to vote was 21. So was the legal drinking age. In celebration I got hauled down to the county elections office to register to vote. I came from a long line of Republicans but, Richard Nixon was president and no way was I going to register as a Republican. After Watergate my folks switched parties. Never missed a presidential election, nor most of the others. May have missed a bond measure or two over the years. 

You see voting was that important to my dad. And now that I think about it grand dad may have been a poll worker back in the day. I figure the eight am opening of the polls was geared to the time it took the local farmers to get their morning chores done and get to town. Then it was raise the flag, announce precinct so and so, town of so and so, Washington County, Oregon is now open." In the evening it was the reverse and lower the flag. Probably around five or six in the evening. It wasn't as if anybody had anywhere to go after dark in rural Oregon. I wonder when smalltown Oregon finally got street lights. Probably about the time the first electrc lights were strung. 

Now I have to admit I'm probably about fifty fifty choosing  winning presidential candidate. I admire Jimmy Carter but, at the time he was the candidate endorsed by the 700 Club. I was channel surfing OK. Then the good christians of the Robertson cult discovered they really had a Christian on their hands and didn't know what to do with him. Except vote for saint Ronnie as quickly as possible.

The last Republican candidate for senator I voted for was Mark Hatfield. A good and honorable man. He got out in the nineties as the partisan rhetoric started to heat up and the candidates got a full bubble off plumb. 

So this year vote as if your lives depend on it. And that vote earns you the right to bitch about the results. 

And BTW anyone reading who doesn't live in Oregon. We have statewide vote by mail. We've been voting by mail since the nineties. Oregon was the first and we had to fight to get it and fight to keep it. There has been little to no fraud. Our ballots will be mailed the 13th of next month. If you are already registerd in Oregon and are basically changing your address you can register up to election day, pick up a ballot at the county elections office and vote. If you are a new voter in Oregon the cut off is October 13.