312

Three-hundred and twelve votes. In 2008 that was the difference between Al Franken becoming a Minnesota Senator and being unemployed. It took a mind-boggling thirty-five weeks to complete the recount in which there were nearly 3 million ballots cast. Thirty-five weeks? Really? Were all the ballots frozen together?

537

White House Photo / Eric Draper

If less than 600 Floridians had gotten off their couches or Relax-the-Back chairs — I have no idea what people in Florida like to sit on — Al Gore would have been our president, George W. Bush wouldn’t have been cowering in a classroom reading “The Pet Goat” to second-graders, and we probably never would have invaded Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of their innocent civilians.

If that doesn’t entice you to run one extra errand on a Tuesday, then you’re just not a team player.

The ballot needs to leave your home

Unsplash / Phillip Goldsberry

In 2002 police officer Kevin Entze lost a GOP primary in a state House race in Washington by one vote out of nearly 12,000 cast. He later learned that one of his fellow reserve officers forgot to mail in his ballot. “He left his ballot on his kitchen counter, and it never got sent out,” said Entze. Betcha that guy has one fewer Facebook friend.

Political lotto

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In Wyoming’s 1994 House of Representatives race, Republican Randall Luthi and Independent Larry Call each finished with 1,941 votes. A recount showed identical results. That’s when Governor Mike Sullivan stepped in.

He wrote both candidate’s names on some ping-pong balls, stuck them in his cowboy hat, and his secretary of state picked the winner. Luthi won. The ping-pong balls with Sharpie all over them retired on disability.

94 in ’06

Pixabay

In 2006, Connecticut’s 2nd U.S. Congressional seat was won by Democrat Joe Courtney with 121,252 votes to Rob Simmons’ 121,158; a difference of only 94 votes. That’s less than the number of U.S. Senators — I mean, when Mitch McConnell allows them to come out and vote on something.

One vote tipped an entire legislature!

Screenshot / YouTube

In 2017, Republicans took control of the Virginia state House by A SINGLE SEAT, and A SINGLE VOTE would have tipped the scales for the Democrats! Here’s what went down. There was a tie between Democrat Shelly Simonds and Republican David Yancey. The tie was broken by pulling a name placed in a film canister out of a bowl. Think about how many people subsequently lost their rights or had counter-productive policy passed because one person didn’t feel like making an effort to fill out a ballot?

Simonds got her revenge in 2018 when she smoked Yancey by over 3,500 votes.

Let’s make sure Democrats get our White House revenge in 2020.

Sometimes winning is losing

Just 7,368 votes separated the 1880 presidential election between Republican James A. Garfield and Civil War hero Winfield Scott Hancock. Garfield probably wished his fans had stayed at home on election day. Had he not been president, he probably wouldn’t have been assassinated less than seven months after his inauguration.

One win, one loss, two votes

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In 2016, Republican David Ainsworth defeated Democrat Sarah Buxton by just one vote out of over 2,000 cast for a Vermont state House seat. Even stranger, when the same two candidates faced each other in 2010, the race was also decided by one vote! Only that time, Buxton was the winner.

.2 percent’er

Flickr / U.S. Embassy New Delhi

The 1960 Kennedy-Nixon battle was a lot closer than many realize. Out of 68 million votes, Kennedy won by just 112,000. That’s only 0.2 — a fifth of the percentage of the type of milk I buy.

Don’t make excuses. Vote. Make sure your friends vote. Make sure your family votes! Unless they’re voting for Trump. Then take away their car keys.