Close elections show every vote does matter
Last week’s election results should forcefully put to rest an old adage from a portion of the electorate that clings to the belief “my single vote doesn’t matter.”
The extremely tight countywide races in both Washington and Greene counties, where fewer than 100 votes separated the winners and losers in two major contests, show anyone can influence an election if they just take the time to show up to the polls.
It had been anticipated since the May primary the race for Greene County judge between Democrat Louis Dayich and Republican Jeffry Grimes would be close, and that prediction turned out to be true as Dayich won by only 86 votes out of 9,172 total votes cast.
The race for Washington County commissioner is even tighter. After the absentee ballots were opened Thursday, Democrat Harlan Shober led his Republican opponent Mike McCormick by a mere 36 votes for the final seat on the county’s Board of Commissioners. That number could narrow even more when up to 120 provisional ballots are opened today.
But turnout for both elections in an off-year were less than stellar, albeit higher than usual.
More than 43 percent of voters in Greene County cast ballots, and while Greene County Elections Director Tina Kiger said that turnout was “a little higher” than similar off-year elections, it’s still not nearly enough when such an important position such as a 10-year-term for county judge is up for grabs. Just imagine how the outcome might have changed if the other half of the electorate had voted? We’ll never know who more than half of the county’s voters wanted as their next judge.
The same can be said in Washington County for an equally important position of commissioner with only a few dozen votes separating the two candidates. About 32 percent of the electorate showed up, which proved to be significantly higher than previous off-year elections and beat expectations, Washington County Assistant Elections Director Wes Parry said.
Just imagine that for a moment: It’s somehow an improvement when less than one-third of Washington County’s eligible voters – a total of 42,090 people – participate in the democratic process.
Parry put that voter turnout into perspective with the race for the final commissioner’s seat. He noted either Shober or McCormick will win the position with only about 16,600 votes. That means in a county with more than 208,000 residents, less than eight percent of the population will have chosen the final commissioner.
“If you don’t think every vote counts, think again,” Parry said.
While these two races garnered the most attention in the two counties, there are countless other important municipal positions that were decided by razor-thin margins.
Four votes is all that separated the winner and loser in the Robinson Township supervisor’s race, while the contest for the same position in North Franklin was won by just 17 votes. Meanwhile, battles for seats on the boards in Center and Dunkard townships in Greene County were each decided by 20 votes.
Sure, those are smaller sampling sizes, but the point remains: Any voter can influence an election.
In both big elections and small, your vote really does count.