Comments on: "Get out the vote" Origin?

Question: "Get out the vote" Origin?

GregX3 — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 10:45:58 -0800

Where does the phrase "Get out the vote" come from?

I hear it so much lately and it really bothers me because it doesn't seem grammatically correct. What's the origin of this term? Why does everyone have to use it?

By: smackfu

smackfu — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 11:27:08 -0800

Wow, surprisingly old term. Here's a NY Times story from 105 years ago that used it in the headline: "TAMMANY LEADERS HARD AT WORK.; Election District Captains Instructed to Get Out the Vote."

By: mbrubeck

mbrubeck — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 12:15:44 -0800

Here are more early 20th-century uses from Google News Archive. The Wikipedia article unfortunately says nothing about the history of the phrase.

By: mbrubeck

mbrubeck — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 12:19:49 -0800

More citations, back to 1864!

By: GregX3

GregX3 — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:30:28 -0800

It's really interesting how old this phrase is. I'm still curious where it actually came from. Could it come from so far back that "Get out the vote" was actually gramatically correct at that time?

By: voidcontext

voidcontext — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:49:51 -0800

Forgive me... how is it not correct?

By: MadamM

MadamM — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 18:53:20 -0800

Ha, in US History today we started reading about Jacksonian democracy and the increased importance of the common man's vote as property requirements for voting became less common. This time period would be roughly from the early 1820s to the 1850s or so. It seems that canvassing for votes (going out and kissing babies, holding barbecues, etc.) became more common during this time. I don't know about that exact phrase, but the idea came from roughly that time period.

By: decathecting

decathecting — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 19:41:22 -0800

Regarding the grammar, the phrase is perfectly correct. In this case, "vote" is a metonym for "voters." More literally, it means "Get the voters out to the polls."

By: voidcontext

voidcontext — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 11:19:55 -0800

Decathecting, I was struggling in vain to remember that term. Thanks!