For anyone who has ever questioned the impact or importance of his or her vote, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted today provided more evidence that one vote really does matter.
Based on review of 110 recounts conducted following the 2013 General Election on Nov. 5, 35 local races and eight local issues were decided by one vote or through breaking a tie. Just one person could have made the difference in deciding whether local taxes would go up and whether someone else would have served in important local offices, including township trustee, city or village council and school board. In fact, an individual was elected mayor based upon drawing a high card.
Regarding this data, all of the following may be attributed to Secretary Husted: “These results are proof that every vote can make a difference. When a single vote can have such a big impact in so many places, you can understand why we focus so heavily on accuracy of the voter rolls and the integrity of the elections process, and why we encourage every voter to take their right and responsibility to vote seriously,” he said.
Husted further stated, “Close elections reinforce our focus to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in Ohio.”
Read more about Secretary Husted’s efforts to make it easy to vote (here) and (here), to keep Ohio’s voter rolls accurate and up-to-date (here), and on his vigilance in combating voter fraud and voter suppression (here) and (here).