Every Vote Counts
Every election, we get another lesson in how every vote is important.
This election, we saw several central Texas incumbent Democrat State Representatives fall to their Republican challengers: Rep Moldanado was defeated by Larry Gonzales; Rep Valinda Bolton was defeated by Paul Workman; and Patrick Rose was defeated by Jason Isaac. Republicans picked up 22 seats from Texas House Democrats in this election, giving them an imposing 99-51 margin.
In Texas house district 48, the vote count is a split decision: State Rep Donna Howard holds a miniscule 15 vote lead over her Republican challenger Dan Neil. Hundreds of absentee and provisional ballots are yet to be counted, and this one will surely go to a recount. Consider those who decided not to vote due to late election day rain, or the many who cast a libertarian vote (would you vote libertarian if you could instead decide the victor between the Republican or Democrat?) Or consider those who voted for Governor but left this race blank. Did they know how important just a few votes could be?
Nobody was predicting the pickup of so many Texas House seats, and nobody can predict which race ends up with a razor-thin margin. So it's prudent to vote like your vote will decide the outcome in every race, because it just might be the deciding vote when you least expect it.
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1 comment:
You beat me to the punch. I wanted to discuss the effect of chaos theory and the butterfly effect on the outcome (final count of 16 vote lead for the Dem), about the fact that it was game day on the Saturday that the CTRA blockwalked in HD 48 and the only one to show up from the CTRA to walk was me with my helpful 11 year old and my not so helpful 9 year old in tow. We touched the least number of doors and talked to the least number of people of the four house district blockwalks which the CTRA participated in.
What if we had walked a full rather than half day? What if it had been just me and my 11 year old. What if we had had one or two other CTRA Members or Friends participating? What if Dan Neil's team had chosen a more fruitful neighborhood to walk? What if a "voter butterfly" had been flapping its wings far or near?
It does not matter now, at least not until next time when we have the chance to do it again and perhaps win by 1, 10, 100 or 1000 or more votes. Ahh, that would be sweet chaos in Travis County.
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