#FunFactFriday – Voting

Tuesday, Nov. 6, will be my first time voting in-person on Election Day! Throughout college, I would send in an absentee ballot, but now I am ready for the full experience. To mark the occasion, I am sharing with you some voting facts for this month’s #FunFactFriday:

1. In colonial times, a common campaign strategy was for political candidates to offer alcohol at the polling places. George Washington spent almost his entire campaign budget just on alcohol for Election Day.
2. The weather and farming dictated when elections were held. The onset of winter conditions in areas that had brutal winters made travel a problem, so that is why elections happen in November.
3. After the “hanging chad” controversy in Florida during the 2000 election of Bush v. Gore, punch card ballots were quickly discontinued.
4. Native Americans were given the right to vote on June 2, 1924. However, some states barred them from voting until 1957 since the Indian Citizenship Act was governed by state law. Native Americans were able to vote in Arizona in 1948.
5. The 19^th amendment guaranteed all women the right to vote on August 18, 1920.
6. Cartoonist Thomas Nash created both the Republican and Democratic symbols, the elephant and the donkey, respectively, when he parodied the political parties in a cartoon in Harper’s Weekly magazine in 1874. These symbols are still in use today.
7. Only Maine and Vermont allow inmates to vote while incarcerated, while many other states take away the privilege until their parole or probation is complete.
8. How did Show Low, Ariz. get its name? Early day settlers and neighbors, Corydon E. Cooley and Marion Clark, became concerned about one invading the other’s privacy. Instead of using violence to settle the dispute, they used a deck of playing cards. The game got serious when Clark said to Cooley while he was dealing the last hand, “If you can show low, you win.” At this point Cooley turned up the deuce of clubs and declared “Show Low it is.” In all fairness, Marion Clark moved and Cooley named the settlement “Show Low,” in honor of the now-famous card game. The main street in Show Low is called the “Deuce of Clubs” and whenever there is a runoff for mayor the issue is settled by the two opponents sitting down with a deck of cards. The first to draw the deuce of clubs is mayor for the next term.
9. More than 22 countries around the world require their citizens to vote. Citizens who do not vote are typically subject to penalties, such as fines or community service. For obvious reasons, voter turnout in these countries is typically high.
10. Only 58.1% of our voting-eligible population voted in the 2016 election.

With that being said, everyone’s vote matters and every election matters! Make sure you get out there and cast your vote on Tuesday, Nov. 6.