The power of one is real
Imagine Carrie Phillips as a football or basketball coach.
Yeah, yeah, we’re making a stretch here — putting Kootenai County’s elections manager on the sidelines of a sports event — but ride along for a minute, OK?
Coaches are always saying: “Keep your focus. One little play here or there, just one, can decide a game.”
Well, Phillips now can be our unofficial champion of that belief.
“We’ve seen some amazing results recently,” she said. “I guess you can call it, ‘One little vote.’”
Now that the holidays are over, we’re hitting election season — with Idaho’s Republican midterms coming up just down the road in May.
And Coach Phillips has her pregame speech ready to go.
“You can honestly tell people this year that their vote matters, because one vote either way can decide an election,” she said. “You always hear that, but lately it’s actually been true.”
Normally that’s just a hollow saying, when you consider that national votes can run well over 100 million during presidential years.
On the other hand …
Phillips oversaw two one-vote victories last November.
“There was a 25-24 vote for a seat on the Fernan Lake Village City Council,” Phillips said, “and the other one-vote margin involved a recount.”
That was a two-county effort, as Mark Miller edged Jonathan Hall 251-250 for a Spirit Lake Fire District spot.
Since the district sprawls into both Kootenai and Bonner counties, there had to be coordination when Hall asked for a recount.
Hall admitted afterward that he wasn’t surprised when the recount confirmed his defeat, because the entire process had been so efficient.
He called it “the essence of democracy” — a statement that should have made Phillips and County Clerk Jim Brannon justifiably proud.
For all of Hall’s graciousness, however, what if you were one of his supporters and found some silly reason to skip voting?
Even more spectacular than our local elections, at least numerically, the battle for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates wound up as a tie despite 23,215 votes being cast.
NOT ONLY that, but with 17 years of Republican control of the House at stake, Democrat Shelly Simonds seemed to have won by a single vote after a recount.
Not only that, but a Simonds victory appeared to leave the House of Delegates with a dead-even split.
After the recount, however, Republican David Yancey challenged a single ballot in court — and prevailed.
Eventually, Yancey won the seat with a drawing of lots after the race was declared a tie.
Still think one vote isn’t important?
Now some bad news …
Getting people to the polls traditionally has been a problem in the United States, an issue that’s simply embarrassing.
In 2016, just 59.7 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the U.S. election.
“That’s one area where we did well locally,” Phillips said. “Our turnout was 77.06 percent.”
On the down side, only about half (88,186) the county’s population was actually registered.
By the way, Phillips does want to add one thing to her pre-election pep talk for this year.
“We really hope that eligible voters will register early,” she said. “In 2016, we had about 10,000 people register on election day.
“That does put a strain on things.”
She’s right, so …
Register soon.
And hey, your one lonely vote really might matter.
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Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press.
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