Does Your Vote Count?
You better believe that it does. Thankfully it appears that Gen Y turned out at the polls in droves two days ago. Early indications are that this election saw the highest percentage of under 30 voters in history. That's really important given that Gen Y will likely need to fix some of the messes created by the Baby Boomers and Gen X'ers.
One of the excuses that some people make for not voting is that their votes don't really count. They typically don't mean that their votes aren't counted but rather that their votes aren't needed. Well, remember eight years ago in Florida when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by about 500 votes? Here in Minnesota we're seeing the about the same margin of victory for the U.S. Senate race between the incumbent, Republican Norm Coleman, and the challenger, Democrat Al Franken. We've lived through one of the long, nastiest, and most expensive senatorial races in history and after 2.91 million voted the margin of "victory" for Coleman is 471 votes.
Under Minnesota law, the re-count is automatic unless Franken waves that right and that's not going to happen. It will likely be December or even January before all of the ballots are reviewed. Ballots like mine which were properly completed will be re-scanned and that should go pretty quickly. But the Secretary of State is guesstimating that there are about 6,000 ballots which weren't completed properly because the voter circled the candidate's name or put a check or X into the oval rather than filling it in. There are also allegations that some of the ballots weren't counted at all. In any case, the election will likely come down to a very, very small number of votes.
Remember these elections each time you have the opportunity to vote and never, ever waive that right. Millions have fought and died for democracy and our right to vote for our leaders. To waive that by failing to show up is an insult to their memories.
Leave a comment