Election Day and the Right to Vote-

Recalling memorable election contests over the years

California is all in on mail-in ballots in 2020. Photo: Steve Newvine

The election of 2020 is bringing back memories of voting from many years past I remember 1976 and voting in my first presidential election. Incumbent Gerald Ford, who finished the remainder of the second Richard Nixon term, was pitted against challenger Jimmy Carter.

We all know how that ended. But for me, the lasting memory was casting my first vote for President.

Steve Ford, the son of former President Gerald Ford, shared his reflections of growing up in the President’s family during a speech in Fresno back in 2018. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting President Ford's son Steve at an event in the Central Valley. As the keynote speaker, he shared with the audience his excitement of that campaign.

He told the audience that at one point in the late summer, Carter led in polling by over thirty-percent over Ford. But as the campaign closed in on Election Day, the race was essentially tied.

Steve Ford, son of the late former President Gerald Ford, told a Fresno audience in 2018 that the 1976 race tightened considerably in the closing weeks of the campaign. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

I enjoyed Steve Ford as he talked politics as well as what life was like in the Ford family. At a meet-and-greet event prior to the speech, I shared with him my enthusiasm for finally being able to vote for President more than forty years ago.

A few years later, I participated in the election of 1980 when President Jimmy Carter faced off against Ronald Reagan.

I voted again, but this time it was through an absentee ballot as I was transitioning from one job to another, moving about eleven-hundred miles to a new opportunity.

I am very proud that I voted in every single presidential contest since becoming eligible, as well as every election in-between.

I believe it is an important duty of being a citizen in the US.

It is a privilege, but it is also an obligation that people should treat more seriously.

Two of the three voters in our household, my mother-in-law and my wife, show their ballots minutes before the envelopes were taken to the Merced County Board of Elections. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

A few years ago, I wrote a column here on MercedCountyEvents.com about low voter turnout.

At the time, there was a lot of comment about the so-called “99-percenters”, individuals representing the overwhelming majority of the population but perceived by some at that time as not sharing fully in the wealth of the nation

I argued that we should be less focused on the 99-percent and more concerned about the low voter turnout we had recently experienced. The real power of the people comes through active engagement in the process.

And that should mean every eligible voter casting a ballot. Now we come to 2020, where it seems every television commercial break has advertisements for local candidates or ballot propositions, the mailbox is full of flyers and brochures from various candidates, and social media has exploded with opinions designed to energize each party’s base.

In the state and federal races, there is considerable negative messaging among the advertisements we are seeing this election season.

Now more than ever, we need to seek out information about the candidates and the issues, and then take that next step.

I remember what it was like growing up in a small town in upstate New York where Election Day turnout might have been three hundred people.

I remember going with my mother and father to the polls.

While I don't recall being taken behind the curtain of the voting machine, I do recall standing in line, feeling curious about all these people waiting, and looking forward to the day when I would be able to cast my ballot.

Voting remains a privilege that I hope will never be taken for granted.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His current book Course Corrections, is now available in a special hard-cover edition at Lulu.com. In December, he will publish a new book about special Californians and their achievements.

The Palm and the Pine from the Air-

Sacramento TV Crew Show Unique Perspective of Local Icon

The view of the palm and the pine on Highway 99 south of Madera as seen through the drone video camera of KCRA-TV in Sacramento. Photo from KCRA video story

In case you have not heard or read about the iconic palm and pine on California Highway 99 south of Madera, here is the story summary: several decades ago, the state transportation agency Caltrans placed a palm and pine tree in the median to mark the spot close to the geographic center of the state.

The pine represents where northern California begins.

The palm represents where the southern half starts.

The story has been told many times.

The phrase “palm meets the pine” is part of a country song, the subtitle of my book California Back Roads, and a popular part of local folklore.

The story was recently retold with a new twist by reporter John Bartell and videographer Tyler Horst from KCRA-TV in Sacramento.

John interviewed me for the story. Here’s the video link:

Videographer Tyler Horst prepares the drone camera to help tell the story on KCRA-TV. Photo: Steve Newvine

When John invited me to a spot in a vineyard on the east side of the palm and the pine, I headed to Madera expecting to offer a few bits of history and perspective on the popular roadside attraction.

I was really impressed with the tools today’s television news crews have to tell their stories.

Full disclosure: I worked in television news for fifteen years, leaving it all behind in the mid 1990’s.

A lot has changed. John’s feature reports are called Bartell’s Back Roads, and air regularly on Sacramento television.

This particular feature was delayed from airing throughout the summer due to the heavy coverage of COVID and the California wildfires.

My fellow storytellers John Bartell and Tyler Horst at the site of the palm and the pine in Madera. Photo: Steve Newvine

After completing our interview and walking around the area for cover shots for use in editing the report, Tyler turned his attention to the station’s video drone camera.

Within minutes, he had the drone up in the air gathering impressive video of the scene.

Drone cameras are used in many television stations today. I first saw them in use during the earthquake aftermath in Napa County in 2014.

Drones got a heavy workout in recent years to help document the California wildfires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres.

The Sacramento news drone showed the palm and pine on Highway 99, and then showed the actual geographic center of the state in North Fork about forty miles to the east.

“Scientific geological markers were placed here (North Fork) back in 1998,“ John reported in his narration of the feature.

“And unlike the palm and the pines on Highway 99, you can actually stand at the center of the state.”

John Bartell interviews Steve Newvine near the site of the palm and the pine in Madera County. Photo from KCRA video story.

While I was impressed with the storytelling techniques used by the pair in the piece, I was pleasantly surprised by a small clip of video that was not shot by Tyler.

To emphasize the somewhat ambiguous history of how the original trees came to be planted in the highway median, the KCRA crew found video from Huell Howser’s California Gold program from about a quarter of a century ago.

The late Huell Howser, interviewed a Caltrans spokesman in the mid 1990’s about the palm and the pine.

In that video clip, Huell asks a Caltrans spokesman about the origin of the roadside attraction only to be told by the spokesman that no one really knows.

Huell passed away in 2013, but his programs are still seen on public television. I was proud to share a little space in the video story with this charismatic storyteller.

I offer a thank you to Huell Howser for being among the first to bring the palm and the pine to television back in the 1990s. And thank you to John and Tyler, fellow California storytellers, for taking our local claim to fame to new heights.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

He wrote California Back Roads in 2017. That book is available at Lulu.com.

He is finishing a new book about California that will be out at Christmas.