Your Vote Counts

You always hear that every vote counts. You want to believe it but the little voice in the back of your head tells you that in the grand scheme of things your vote doesn't really matter. Your vote does matter and I can prove it. I witnessed the power of one vote and the influence that one person can have.

I used to live in a growing suburb of Columbus, Ohio called Pickerington. One year while standing in line to vote I overheard a group of girls behind me who had come out to vote for what I believed was the first time. They weren't there because of presidential politics or some issue gripping the nation. They were there to vote for the local school levy, to support the system that they had recently graduated from.

Behind them in line was a former classmate, a guy. They traded teenage banter back and forth about high school. The half dozen girls were all there to vote for the levy, the guy was voting against it. One of the girls was outraged that this guy was not going to support their school, her school, so she decided to do something about it. She got out her cell phone and in the 30 to 45 minutes that we all stood in line she called everyone she knew. She implored them to get out and vote for the levy. The guy laughed and said something to the effect that she wasn't going to make any difference.

The next day when I looked for the levy results in the local paper I saw that it had indeed passed. The final margin, in a district where the total number of votes cast was five or six thousand, was 14. My guess is 14 teenage girls. This 18 or 19 year old girl had not only made her vote count but she changed the election results because she got involved.

It's Primary day - go out and vote. You can make a difference.