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I KNOW what "Get out the vote!" MEANS, but it never made much grammatical sense to me. Does anyone here know the origins of this phrase and why it's worded the way it is?




Yeah John, I think I know how that all started!

You see, originally the phrase "Get out the vote" was actually two sentences, "The VOTE? GET OUT!", and it was started by some folks like Jack here who don't vote because evidently cynicism had overwhelmed them, and in their defense, sometimes justifiably so.

But because it seemed fewer and fewer people were bothering to exercise their Right to vote, a Right for which many many people over the years had actually given their lives in defense of, eventually some other folks said something like, "Hey! Maybe if we turn that phrase around and maybe make it one sentence instead of two and also get rid of that question mark, then maybe more folks will go do their civic duty and help steer this country's course, and maybe even in a way honor those who, as Lincoln once so elequently put it, "had given the last full measure of their devotion"."

And thus, THIS is how we've come to know the phrase "Get out the vote" as it is today!

(...or the story goes SOMETHING like that anyway!)

Last edited by Dwight; 11/04/2008 2:29 PM.
Yep! Just like a good Single Malt Scotch, you might call me "an acquired taste" TOO.(among the many OTHER things you may care to call me, of course)