Who Says One Vote Doesn’t Matter?

As you prepare to go to the polls in various elections this year and next, some people will tell you that it doesn’t matter; that your one vote doesn’t matter.  When it is pointed out that George W. Bush won Florida, and the presidency, in 2000 by 537 votes (out of almost six million votes in Florida and over 105 million votes nationally), people say that’s not one vote.

When I mention the village trustee race in River Forest, Illinois, that was decided by two votes, people again say, that’s still not one vote.

But now consider Virginia.  The current Governor is under fire for what was on his medical school yearbook page 35 years ago and for wearing blackface 30+ years ago, the Lieutenant Governor is under fire for allegedly assaulting a woman fifteen years ago, and the Attorney General is under fire for wearing blackface 40 years ago.   

If all of them are forced (by public opinion or whatever else) to resign,¹ the next in line to be Governor is Kirk Cox, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.  This would be a big deal because the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General are all Democrats, and Speaker Cox is a Republican.

Okay, fine, you say, but what’s that got to do with one vote deciding an election.  Just this: Virginia has 100 members in its House of Delegates.  After election night in November of 2017, Republicans had won 50 seats in the House of Delegates and Democrats had 49.  The election-night count in the remaining seat was really close, so there was a recount.  The recount ended in a tie. The Republican and Democratic candidates were literally tied.  Therefore, under Virginia law, the winner was decided when the Republican candidate’s name was pulled out of a bowl instead of the Democrat’s name.  Which gave the Republicans 51 delegates in the House of Delegates to the Democrats’ 49, and Republican Kirk Cox was elected speaker.

However, if the Democratic candidate’s name had been pulled out of the bowl, or if one more person had voted for the Democratic candidate for delegate in that 100th district, the House of Delegates would have been tied, 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.  The Republicans would not have controlled the House of Delegates, and who knows who would have become speaker.  It could have easily been a Democrat.  In which case, the next in line for the governorship of Virginia, if the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General all resigned, would be another Democrat, instead of a Republican.  All because of one vote.

Which means your vote does matter.
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¹ As many called for the resignation of Governor Ralph Northam, especially before the claims against the Lieutenant Governor and the situation involving the Attorney General arose.