Happy Election Day
Choosing who you’re going to vote for can be a long and scary process. It can be hard to figure out who is telling the truth and who will actually be the best choice to lead your country/state/city. On days like this, we kind of wish we lived “back in the day,” when candidates kept it real and got people drunk.
The National Constitution Center published an entry in their blog recently about drinking on election day (it’s meant to go along with their American Spirits exhibition that shows visitors about crazy drinking habits that led to the 18th Amendment).
These are some amusing facts about how candidates would take off their gloves and pop some corks to get the popular vote:
• Some candidates would have big parties in public places as people came to town to vote.
• When George Washington was a candidate in Virginia for the House of Burgesses in 1758, he footed a “giant” liquor bill in hopes that voters would think of him on election day. How big? He spent his entire campaign budget (50 pounds) on 160 gallons of liquor for 391 voters. (We wish we could still buy 160 gallons of anything for 50 pounds.)
• Washington wasn’t a trail blazer when it came to getting voters liquored up; it was actually tradition in Virginia to set up barrels of liquor on Election Day at polling places and on the courthouse lawns.
Prohibition put a stop to the Election Day drinking (…and all of the drinking) and by the time liquor was legal again, the magical days of drinking while voting were never able to make a comeback. What a shame.
Regardless of your political party, make sure you vote today and your voice is counted.