It Counts. Seriously!

I know, I bring my work into my personal life. It's always been so and I don't really see it changing in the foreseeable future. :)  Sorry!

I work in elections.  I've had two elections in the past 2 weeks, both of which shows the power of a vote.

First - a smaller town council election.  Although there were 5 people in the race, the final results were down to a man and a woman. The man won at the polls.  The woman won the absentee voting.  But because of her 11 absentee votes, she won the overall race by 4 votes. FOUR VOTES. OH MY GOSH.

Tonight's election involved two counties and 5 total candidates.  In this particular race, the winner must win with 50% + 1 of the votes. With five candidates... well, usually that fractures the vote too much and you end up with a run-off two weeks later between the top two candidates.  After all our precincts reported, we called the other county and heaved a HUGE SIGH of RELIEF because one candidate managed to get more than 50% of the votes. NO RUN-OFF! YAY!

The people speak. And history is determined. I love it! And it's so exciting to be part of the process and watch it all unfold in front of your eyes. However, it's also exhausting and can mean some very long nights. Today was a 15 hour work day for a very small election (24 of 89 precincts).  Last general election for a state-wide election - 5:30 a.m. until 3:00 a.m. the next morning. Almost a 24-hour day!!! And we had to be back at work by 8 a.m. - only 5 hours after we left.

So, people. VOTE. SERIOUSLY. VOTE VOTE VOTE every chance you get. Because especially in the smaller elections, one vote can completely change history. :)

Ok, off my soap box and into my bed. Night!