With the November presidential election fast approaching, the time is coming for America to make an extremely important decision regarding our future. Who will we choose to hold the highest office in the land? While only time will tell, I thought it would be fun to take a look back on our past elections to put the current situation into a little context. With that, here are some fun facts from the historical archives about our presidents and elections:
1. Eight presidents have died in office: Harrison, Taylor, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, FDR, and Kennedy.
2. It is thought that the only "clean" election in U.S. history was the first one, when George Washington ran for office unopposed. Even then, Alexander Hamilton tried to sabotage the election by taking votes away from the VP, John Adams.
3. Speaking of George Washington, he spent his entire campaign budget on 160 gallons of alcohol to give to prospective voters (I mean, he has my vote).
4. The only divorced man to be elected president is Ronald Reagan.
5. Martin Van Buren was the first American born president in 1833: the rest were born as British subjects.
6. Jehovah Witnesses do not vote in presidential elections because they wish to remain neutrall in all political matters. This belief stems from the bible verse John 17:14, in which Jesus says to his followers: "There are not of this world, just as I am not of the world."
7. The U.S. is ranked 139th out of 172 countries in voter participation; in fact, the 2012 election saw a voter turnout rate of only 57.7%..
8. Before 1804, the candidate who received the second highest amount of votes became the vice president.
9. The shortest president was James Madison, at 5 feet 4 inches; the tallest was Abraham Lincoln, at 6 feet four inches.
10. Obama is counted as the 44th president but there have actually only been 43 presidents. Grover Cleveland is counted twice as the 22nd and 24th president because he served for two nonconsecutive terms.
11. It is illegal to drink alcohol in South Carolina and Kentucky on election day (but I'm not sure how many people actually follow this!).
12. A presidential candidate must be at least 35 years of age, be a natural born citizen, and a resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years.
13. Al Smith, a presidential candidate who ran against prohibition, had this campaign slogan: "Vote for Al Smith and he'll make your wet dreams come true" (talking about alcohol, of course).
14. George Washington didn't have enough funds for his inauguration so he borrowed 600 dollars from his neighbor to cover the costs.
15. No president has been an only child.
16. Calvin Coolidge enjoyed having his head rubbedwith petroleum jelly while having his breakfast in bed (try getting that image out of your head).
Happy voting, everyone!
