Did you know that prior to the passage of the 12th Amendment to the Constitution (in 1804), the office of Vice President was not filled by someone who was the President's running mate but was instead the runner-up in the presidential election?
If that were still the case, that would mean that after tomorrow we would have either a President Obama with a VP McCain, or a President McCain with a VP Obama -- which would be promising (one hopes) for the future of bipartisan political cooperation, but would certainly make Saturday Night Live less interesting.
Actually, the 12th Amendment was passed not because of some logical issue with the problem of having a President and Vice President from different parties (both parties nominated two candidates), but because some technical snafu almost landed Aaron Burr in the position of President instead of Thomas Jefferson. Oops.
Other cool facts about the history of presidential elections that I've unearthed include:
* George Washington is the only President to have been elected unanimously by the Electoral College. And he did it twice.
* Lyndon Johnson was elected in 1964 with the highest percentage of the popular vote supporting him (61.1%) ever in any election.
* In 1964, Senator Margaret Chase Smith (Maine) was the first female candidate whose name was put forward for President by a major party. She had no money for campaigning but traveled the country herself to drum up support. At the Republican convention, she received 27 votes on the first round of balloting to decide the party's nominee.
* You can download an album of Presidential Campaign Songs (did you even know such a thing existed?) here, and nod your head along with folksy songs like "Huzzah for Madison, Huzzah" and "Get on a Raft with Taft" (who was notoriously overweight and anxious about it).
Why am I telling you all these things? Well, I had great plans to take photos of my excited Son at the polls, and to write a post about how important it is to teach children about how important it is to take a position and exercise one's right to vote.
But it turns out that it's illegal in Michigan to take photos of any kind at polling places, unless you are a credentialed member of the press corps. And the punishment for violating this law is that you might get your ballot thrown out. So I decided to forgo the photos and instead give you a few random facts, since I really really want my vote to count.
I am incredibly excited and nervous about the outcome of this election, and I will be on pins and needles until it is over. I hope everyone out there in bloglandia is voting.
May you have short lines, easy-to-use machines, and no hanging chads in your life today.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
A Little Election History
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6 comments:
Ah yes, I took a picture of my ballot with my cell phone, but could not post it to the Internet for the same reason in MA. Although the law prohibited photographing the act of marking out the ballot and not the ballot itself, but I wasn't about to argue it in a court of law if it came to it (http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/56-25.htm). Cool election trivia! And my kids were thrilled to get "I voted today" stickers even though they were clearly underage. Next time we have to keep them from running around under the curtains between mom and dad's booths.
I've never had to wait in line to vote, which is good for me, but kind of sad, too.
Here in NM we have paper ballots, read by a scanner, which make me more confident my vote will be counted, than electric machines do. But it does take awhile. So, to pass the time, my son drew circles on my shopping list and filled them in. I said to him, "Ooh! Are you voting?" To which my husband replied, "Shh! They'll think were committing fraud, letting a 4-year-old vote."
How interesting! I like the idea of having a president and vice president from different parties!
I know! I wanted to take a picture of my ballot #. (I was the first voter at my precinct this morning! I got #1).
You know, I took a pic of my ballot and posted it. I wondered about the legality of it, but threw caution to the wind.
Yeah, I'm a rebel.
I voted. I'm hoping. So is the rest of the world.
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