First elections you can recall

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Poland:
1995 presidential. It was absurdly close and it wasn't until the next morning the results were declared. I cried because I liked Wałęsa (mostly because of his moustache).

United States:
1996 presidential. I remember when they showed Pat Buchanan (wearing an idiotic hat) on TV after he won NH primary. I also recall my grandparents, who were more to the right, supporting Clinton, because Dole "is too old".

United Kingdom:
1997. I only vaguely remember it, being surprised John Major is no longer Prime Minister, but some other dude. I knew by then Conservatives lost, but was not aware of Labour's existence.

France:
I vaguely remember something about the 1997 parliamentary election.

Germany:
1998. I mostly recall TV showing younger Germans, saying Kohl had been in power too freaking long.

Russia:
1996. Some people in the media were freaking out that if Zyuganov wins, he'll bring back the Soviet Union.

[Figueira]

US: 2000
UK: 2010

Most other countries: not sure

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

US 2008, vaguely.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I remember my parents leaving to vote in 2000, only to return within twenty minutes. I expected it to take hours like their other outings, in which my grandmother used to watch us. I was pretty pissed.

After that, I can recall bits and pieces of the 2004 campaign, and have a particularly vivid memory of Obama's 2004 keynote speech. Other than that, all I remember is waking up in the morning and asking my dad who won. I also remember the 2004 Senate race between Martinez and Castor; I wanted Castor to win, since she seemed nice.

I remember most of the 2006 races, in particular the Crist-Gallagher primary (we backed Gallagher as Crist has an interesting history with a cousin of my mom) and his later victory over Jim Davis. And of course, I recall pretty much all of the 2007-2008 sequence. I remember when Hillary and Rudy were supposed to be the next Presidents.

[TDAS04]

US 1996.

I remember the Clinton-Dole race very well.  I was 9, and I rooted for Dole because most of my favorite presidents (including Lincoln) were Republican and I didn't understand the parties' platforms very well.

In the same year, here in South Dakota, I remember then-Representative Tim Johnson's attack ads against against Senator Larry Pressler.  One ad claimed that Pressler "threw mud" and I didn't quite understand that it wasn't meant literally.

[Crumpets]

I remember hearing about the results of a lot of elections after the fact, especially abroad, but not the buildup or the election night. The 2000 election is the first I remember actually watching unfold.

[/]

I remember being in a bookstore sometime in early 2008 and seeing childrens' books on each of the three remaining candidates at the time - Clinton, Obama, and McCain. My parents didn't like Clinton because they said that she was a liar; my dad said he liked McCain and my mom said she liked Obama. lol

[Mr. Smith]

US
GE: 2000
Midterms: 2006
Overall: 2003 CA Recall

UK

2007

[RR1997]

2004, vaguely.

I supported Bush over John Kerry because my parents did.

[Free Bird]

I remember 2004 happening, but not the details unfolding. I supported Kerry on a Nick.com poll because he looked cooler and because the correct option on a Winnie the Pooh DVD game was the left arrow, and he was on the left in the Nick poll. Thank the good lord I had no idea there was even an election going on in 2006. 2008 is when I actively knew who was who, if only the big players.

[Xing]

I vaguely remember watching my dad vote in the 1996 US election.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

I remember the 2000 Presidential election, my parents both supported and voted for Bush lol

[Green Line]

2000 presidential election.

The first one I remember seriously caring about was Roskam v Duckworth in 2006.

[LLR]

US: 2008

[NeverAgain]

2004, I got to meet Dean which I remember barely.

[The Dowager Mod]

1980.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Technically 1988. 1992 is the first one that I could be described as "following" in any sense.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I vaguely recall going with my mother into the voting booth in 1970 but not which election it was for.  I remember Election Day 1976 and Inauguration Day 1977, but I remember the latter mainly because the snow that day let me stay home to watch the inauguration and the former because for some reason, the Gideons were handing out their little New Testaments to us 5th graders as we were getting out of school for the day.

[Classic Conservative]

2008

[RaphaelDLG]

US: 1996, was an obnoxious 7yo telling people about why Clinton was evil (I used to be a right winger).  Didn't stay up for the results until 2000.

UK:  2010 - I was center left at that point and stupidly jacked off to Nick clegg

[DINGO Joe]

1976.  Jimmy Carter had a big cartoonish grin.  Gerald Ford fell down frequently.  I believe I leaned towards Carter as the grin was slightly funnier.

Actually remember Nixon's resignation (a few months before turning 6).  The adults were so serious--nothing fun about Nixon.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I remember what I know now in retrospect to be the calling of the election in 2001. Other than that, political events I distinctly remember are the Iraq War protests, the deposing of Blair, the London Mayoral elections of 2008, the election of Barack Obama (the first foreign election I cared about) and the 2009 local and European elections (the first time I got interested in the nitty gritty).

[Consciously Unconscious]

2004.  I was in second grade and my class had a mock election.  Kerry only got one vote, though to be fair I remember some kids thought they wer voting for George Washington.  I wrote  some sort of report that said Kerry supporters wanted to move to Canada.  I don't think I watched the results of the election.  The first election I followed was 2012.

[Clark Kent]

2000. I remember my ma and grandma reading a magazine and my parents talking about "Bush" and "Gore".

The earliest that I can clearly remember is 2004.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     1998. I was really young though and had no idea what was going on. Even at that age, the game-like aspect of the numbers race appealed greatly to me.