Why Waste a Precious Vote?

Recently, a very good friend of mine let it be known that he was supporting a presidential candidate whom I had never heard of and whose name escapes me at the present.  He had made a donation to the man’s campaign.  He had suggested to me and others that this man is the ideal candidate because of his platform—ending the war in Afghanistan; bring all U.S. troops home; universal health care; equal pay for women; taxation of the rich, with no loopholes; equal rights for everyone, including same sex marriages for all who desire it; and the unqualified right of everyone to worship as they choose, be they Christian, Jew, Muslim, or whatever—all of which I agree with and support.  He was quite convincing in his appeal to me and others in our circle to donate to and support this man in his campaign.

Many of my friends from Wisconsin have supported and voted for Dennis Kucinich, a man whose politics and beliefs I totally agree with—especially the establishment of a Department of Peace.  However, I am also a realist and feel that, when I cast my ballot for president, it is something I have to take very seriously and not toss it away on a candidate who stands absolutely no chance of being elected.  I may as well not vote at all.  I want my vote to be the counted and to make a difference.

For example, in 1844 in backwoods Indiana a dying man had his sons take him to the polls in order that he might cast his ballot for David Kelso, a lawyer who had successfully defended him against a murder charge.  Kelso, a Democrat, won election by that one vote.  The Indiana Senate was evenly split between Democrats and Whigs.  At that time, the various state legislatures elected the respective U.S. Senators and the evenly split Indiana senate could not elect a Senator.  Kelso bolted the caucus, taking with him a Whig senator until, several weeks later, he returned and nominated Edward Hannigan as senator.  Kelso told his Democrat colleagues that, unless they supported him, he would vote with the Whigs.  Hannigan was then elected to the Senate.  The following year the U.S. Senate was debating over whether to admit Texas as a state.  The most prominent candidate before Hannigan had pledged to vote against Texas statehood.  Hannigan’s vote to admit Texas was the deciding vote.  Thus, it could be argued the vote of a dying man in the wooded hills of Indiana made Texas a state.

In the election of 2000, Florida had the dubious distinction of forcing the election into the hands of nine unelected people, due in large part to the seeming inability of many voters not grasping the importance of their vote.  As the votes were being counted and recounted, by the time the Supreme Court had halted the recount, the votes that had been counted showed that George W. Bush had received 2,912,790 votes; Al Gore 2,912,253 votes—a difference of 537 votes-- and Ralph Nader 97,488 votes.  If only 1 percent of those who voted for Nader had voted for Gore, the results may have been drastically different—and our world along with it.

There is no argument from me that our political system is grievously flawed and that there are moneyed forces at work trying to subvert the process and own it.  It is for us, the governed, to do what we can to keep our birthright to vote as American citizens.  The days of poll taxes are far behind us and now everyone who is eligible to vote has that right without regard to education, gender, race, religion, or any other qualification. 

While I respect anyone who votes his or her conscience, I would counsel them to make sure their vote will make a difference.  I admire those who vote their conscience and would not deny them that right.  I do not condemn them for it, but would remind them that for want of a nail, the shoe was lost…

Each and every vote cast does make a difference, only as long as it is not cast as a protest and not intended to make a difference.  Simply look back on Senator Hannigan and what one solitary man’s vote meant.