Election Days: A Concise History

A brief history of Election Days in my recollection:

* 1992: I remember wearing a Perot shirt that was about five sizes too big for me. I think my Mom received it after volunteering for them. I also remember wearing the shirt at school and getting funny looks from people, which by this time I was already quite used to. Hence the start of not caring what people thought about me, and for that matter, the seed of political interest.

* 1994: Apparently, this year, something very important happened. Just less than a decade later, I would realize it was called the Republican revolution. I have no memory of this. However, it is interesting to note this is when my boss was initially elected to Congress. I was 11.

* 1996: My only memory: not liking Bill Clinton. (I was born under the Reagan Administration. What do you expect?)

* 2000: Since I was working for a newspaper at this point in my life, this was my first office Election Day experience. My boss and I were the only Republicans in the office, as it was filled with journalists. I remember sitting at my desk and pressing “refresh” on CNN’s election website roughly a thousand times. The day of the election, I remember my boss saying it would all come down to Florida. He had no idea just how much that would be true. I stayed up late for probably three nights in a row, thinking by some miracle that they would make some decisive action at some point. They never did.

* 2001: The RNC first launched the 72 Hour Task force for the gubernatorial bid of Mark Earley, who loses in spite of the fact that I waved signs for him. Somehow, through this experience, I fall in love with grassroots politics.

* 2002: While almost all my friends were either in Missouri for Talent’s race or North Dakota for Thune(!), I was finalizing my debate case for Nationals. Feeling very left out, I went to bed about 8 o’clock on election night out of pure boredom.

* 2003: PHC elects its first student body president from the state of Virginia, as well as its first off campus vice president. Rumor has it that I was tangentially involved.

* 2004: After receiving the panicked “um… we might need Oregon” call, the God Squad was unleashed on the streets of suburban Portland. After barely avoiding fights at the Multnomah County election headquarters and Veritable Quandary (though who in their right mind would walk into a bar in downtown Portland wearing Bush paraphernalia?), Team Oregon took it back to the hotel, where we yelled at televisions until 4 in the morning. Team Oregon, 1; mainstream media, 0.

* 2005: My first experience in a polling booth. After a promising 62-46 lead when I first checked the returns, the Republican candidate once again loses the bid for governor, but the second and third highest offices in the land remain under Republican control. As a result of Kilgore’s failure to be elected, I owe a coworker $1.

Well, folks, it’s time for some serious soul-searching. Let’s figure out what we did wrong, what we did right, and how we can do better.

After all, it’s 364 days till Election Day.