A very brief note about a local election.
Last night, as the last of the precincts reported, a candidate was declared the victor in the runoff election of New Orleans' at-large City Council seat. Both candidates had worked mightily to drum up the support and enthusiasm needed to bring out voters in a off-election and both did a respectable job of it.
The winner and vote totals were announced late in the evening, and rarely do they squeak louder than this race. Out of a registered-voter pool of 235,000, fewer than 60,000 showed up at the polls, yielding a victory margin for the winner of. . .
Two hundred, eighty-one votes.
281. Ten school buses. A small door at a nightclub. A tad more than a tenth of a percent of the voting pool.
I write this post not to discuss the merits and flaws of the candidates, their campaigns or our municipal government, but to underline a point everyone here--and their friends, families, co-workers and acquaintances--should already know: it matters. Every damn vote.
With so many states and districts becoming calcified in solid red or blue, some may believe voting in certain races is futile. Their candidate or party is either a shoo-in or a hopeless cause. What can one vote matter?
Maybe not a lot. But, last night in New Orleans, 281 sure did.