The power of a vote

We’ve all met the person who doesn’t vote because “My vote isn’t going to make a difference.” For most races, that can seem to be the case. But even when the result wouldn’t have changed, saying it doesn’t matter sends a message to those in your circle of influencethat can cause a ripple effect from those close to them and out into the wider culture.

But the longer I cover elections… the more I realize that the statement isn’t accurate anyway. Often a single vote really does make a big difference.

At this point, I’m sure anyone reading a Carolina Journal editorial is aware of the two-vote margin separating the state Senate leader Phil Berger, who has arguably been the most powerful man in the state for much of the last 15 years; and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. Page is on top at the moment, but provisional ballots have not been counted, and regardless of who narrowly edges a preliminary victory, there will almost certainly be a recount.

I’ve participated in a recount as a party observer for a coastal state Senate race 14 years ago that came down to 21 votes, and each vote cast was announced, examined, and placed in one pile or another. Sloppily filled ballots that weren’t totally clear in intent were occasionally set aside. So not only whether you vote but how carefully you fill in the bubbles can actually matter.

But it isn’t just the Berger-Page race, as important as that race is, that showed the power of a vote this cycle. Morehead City down at the Crystal Coast had a re-do mayoral election during the primary yesterday because their original came down to a single vote. Questions about whether small groups of voters were turned away, in a race where that would actually have made the difference, caused officials to throw up their hands and just do the whole process over.

In my congressional district, the incredibly safe Democratic 4th District covering much of the western Triangle area, the race is also currently within the 1% recount range. Current US Rep. Valerie Foushee, who is progressive but not entirely radical, is being challenged by her main 2022 primary opponent, Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam, who is far to the left and backed by national progressives like “the Squad” and Sen. Bernie Sanders. After the most expensive US congressional primary in state history… the result, like in the Berger-Page race, is not entirely certain.

Currently, Foushee leads by less than 1% (1,202 votes). And as provisional ballots are counted, it’s anybody’s guess whether this will pull the numbers even closer or prevent a recount by pushing Foushee’s lead over the 1% threshold.

Our current chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, Republican Paul Newby, only wrestled his seat from the last chief justice, Democrat Cheri Beasley, by 401 votes out of 5.4 million. It took about a month and a half for all the recounts and court battles to resolve and the results to be confirmed by the State Board of Elections.

While the highest-profile race this year, the battle for North Carolina’s open US Senate seat, had very predictable primaries, the general election also very well could have a nailbiter finish, as former Gov. Roy Cooper on the Democratic side and former party chair Michael Whatley on the Republican side are both well connected and funded. The frequent claim that this will be the most expensive US Senate race in the country’s history suggests both sides see the race as a tossup.

Being a swing state, unlike most other states in the union, major races really can come down to a small percentage of voters. This should spotlight the privilege we have of choosing our leaders through the voting process all the more.

The vote is not just powerful to the citizens choosing their elected representatives but also for those representatives as they balance their campaign promises, party demands, consciences, and district needs when choosing how to vote on legislation. This deliberative process brought four maverick state House Democrats — Carla Cunningham, Nasif Majeed, Shelly Willingham, and Michael Wray — to sometimes vote with Republicans. And yesterday, all four lost their primaries. It’s unfortunate that legislators aren’t given a bit more ability to think for themselves without losing their seats, but it was also the prerogative of the Democratic voters in their districts to decide what level of swing voting they were comfortable with (apparently very little).

In many times and places in world history, this power to choose, whether by citizens or the legislators they elect, has been absent, and people would have given their lives (and sometimes did) to have it. Right now, in places like Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, China, and North Korea — the sort of rogue’s gallery of authoritarian states that we find ourselves frequently in conflict with — I believe the majority yearn for this. The fact that people from these nations who find a way to get to the United States are often among the strongest fighters for liberal values (religious freedom, freedom of speech, free markets etc) makes that clear.

Whether you agree with our actions in the Middle East at the moment, American citizens voted for the leaders making these decisions. Each of us had the opportunity to weigh in. Hopefully those in Iran, Cuba, and the other nations ruled by authoritarians will soon have the same privilege to have nailbiter elections that keep people refreshing elections websites and lead to messy recounts and battles in court, rather than the street.

“The power of a vote” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.