By Ellen Hill
I am a Voter Registration Agent and worked many public events and approached every new neighbor as soon as they moved in. I am glad to say my neighbors of a certain age get it. They know the assignment.
Two years ago I combed the crowd at Zozobra armed with my clipboard, a smile, and my pitch, which was, “if you don’t vote, you haven’t earned the right to grumble about the state of affairs we are facing, locally and nationally."
Not adequate.
The kids from one of our private high schools enthusiastically signed up, snapped selfies with me and calculated the extra credit they were going to receive from their social studies teacher.
On the other hand, the kids on the other side of the economic spectrum were far less engaged. Their stories, their lack of faith in their futures, were heartbreaking. They would go on to say, "Why?" Just "why?" They told me they didn’t think they would ever get a good job, own a home, be able to afford their piece of the American dream. I tried my best to explain that their vote can make a difference. That they had to be part of the process to change policies, change their outcomes.
So I got to thinking about what one vote can do. Just one vote…
One Vote. What does that mean out of 267 million people of voting age, 244 million eligible voters, 173.8 million registered voters, 154.3 million who voted in the last presidential election? One vote against all of those millions.
One Vote changed France from a Monarchy to a Republic.
One Vote in 1920 in Tennessee made it the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. The deciding vote came from a 24 year old named Harry T. Burns who changed his vote to yes after he received a note from his mother imploring him “to be a good boy and to do the right thing."
One Vote per precinct would have elected Richard Nixon instead of John F Kennedy in 1960.
One Vote determined that California would enter the Union as a free state, tipping the balance of power between slave state and free in the US Senate.
One Vote in 2017 in Virginia tied the balance of power in the House of Delegates during a recount. The court declared a tie, which was then resolved by a random drawing. That drawing ended 17 years of Republican control of the State House.
One Vote is powerful.
