RGBP Civic-Duty Friday Five:

1) How old were you when you voted for the first time?

I marched into the County Clerk's office to register right on my 18th birthday, so it was whatever the next election was after that.

I was 23 before I ever voted at a polling place. I was an absentee voter all through college, and by the time I graduated, Oregon had switched to a universal vote-by-mail system.

2) What was the contest at the top of the ballot?

I have no idea. There was a presidential election for a year and a half after I was eligible to vote, so maybe it was the primary for that. (I remember being very disgruntled that I was finally old enough to vote, and the American party system couldn't present me with a single desirable option. Cue the South Park election episode -- different election, same sentiment.)

Or maybe there was a ballot measure or constitutional amendment that needed deciding. Oregon tends to take the whole "direct democracy" concept to insane extremes.

3) Can you walk to your polling place?

Yes.

Do I? No. I'm lazy and either drive or take the bus.

4) Have you ever run for public office?

Nope.

5) Have you run for office in a club or school or on a board?

Well, I nominated myself and then elected myself by acclamation as the president of the Phi Sigma Alpha Illinois Beta Chapter (philosophy honor society) upon discovering at the beginning of my junior year that I was the only eligible student who had bothered to join. Does that count?

I have also wound up in charge of more things than I care to recall, whether I wanted to be or not. But I haven't voluntarily engaged in a competition for a position of authority. That I can remember.