You never know

Okay, story time. I was 20 years old and running for my first public office, a member of the Spearfish School District Board of Education. There were two open slots and when I saw that the only people who had filed were the two incumbents, I got into gear, got the required signatures and threw my hat in the ring. Because that's what democracy is all about, choices. 

I wasn't too surprised when I got the call on election night telling me I had lost. I was a kid. Running against one of the education professors at the college I was attending. It was a shot in the dark. What was surprising was the margin of defeat: 2 votes. (I did ask for a recount and in the final count, they found an additional vote for my opponent so the final total was a three-vote loss). And the next day when people asked how it went, I had at least 11 people tell me "Oh! If I'd known it was going to be so close, I would have voted." Thanks a lot.

But here's the lesson: You never know. You never know when it's going to be close. Although with 10 candidates on the ballot, there's a good chance this one could be close. Or you never know who actually has a chance of winning. Although, with (last I heard) 40% of voters undecided, any of those candidates, even the one who withdrew, has a chance to win.  You never know.

Another story, in 2016, everyone "knew" that Hilary Clinton had a lock on the presidential election that year. Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania were solid blue states and Hilary was bound to take all three of them. Barack Obama had beaten Mitt Romney handily four years before. Apparently many Democrats didn't think it was necessary to spend the time to vote. Their votes didn't matter. And Republicans might have felt the same way; the outcome is a given, my vote doesn't matter. But the Republicans showed up to vote anyway. And they won. GOP vote totals in those states were very similar to 2012. If all the people who voted for Obama had shown up in 2016, the Democrats would have won, because Obama's totals would have still beaten the numbers Trump posted. The Republicans showed up and they won. Their votes mattered. Because they actually cast them.

You never know when your vote is going to matter. But that's not exactly true, because your vote always matters. When you don't show up, you are trusting others to make the decision for you. Don't do that. Make your voice heard. Vote, even if you firmly believe that your preferred candidate has no chance.

Because you never know.