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August 11, 2012
Exclusive of Local News Only.com -
Nelson Thibodeaux
By Just One Vote
Did your candidate get in during the last election? Voting is
one of the great and most sacred rights of being an American.
The ability to have a direct and decisive say in who represents
you and who actually makes the laws that we live by is a great
thing. In my life I have lived in or visited a number of
countries where people had no such rights, and those societies
are woefully segregated and disjointed from their governments.
Which is why so darned many of them have violent revolutions
from time to time.
But we Americans can vote. Of course we don’t always exercise
our constitutional right. Sometimes, we take it for granted a
little too much. For example, when Denny James ran for Alderman
in Centerville, Mississippi, he sure looked like a shoe-in.
Everybody liked Denny. He was a great guy. In fact, Denny was so
well liked that he ran unopposed in the election. No one wanted
to run against this favorite son. Evidently the whole town of
Centerville felt that way too, because the election was such a
foregone conclusion, that no one bothered to come out and vote.
Why bother? Denny was the only candidate. Denny didn’t even go
and vote for himself! Now that’s confidence. Except in
Mississippi, state law dictates that a candidate must receive at
least one vote to be elected. The election was declared void,
and no one got the job.
Voters can also be a little too callus sometimes. In Milton,
Washington, Boston Curtis ran for the precinct committee. He
won. That’s when it was discovered that Boston was a mule. The
town was not amused! We know of at least 31 times that dead
people have been elected into office. That can’t be good.
George Califano and Peter Lambert ran for mayor and split the
vote: 531 for each candidate. Seven times! Seems that no one in
their town was willing to change their mind or their vote.
Finally Pete Conrad ran in the eighth election and won by one
vote.
There have been quite a few elections won by one vote. Once a
town was saved by one vote. Ashford, Connecticut’s town budget
was up for a vote. Robert Brady, a former resident, was passing
through town and decided to stop at an old favorite eating place
to have a bite. He saw the sign on the courthouse: “Vote Today.”
And on a lark, he decided that since he was still registered to
vote there, he would. The budget was passed that day by one
vote.
But the one that just made me laugh, and I thought you might
like too, is when William Smith of Waukegan, Illinois was
elected Lake County auditor. He ran a good clean campaign all
right, and was ready and prepared to serve to the best of his
ability as the newly elected public servant. But there was one
glitch.
It’s a Little Known Fact that there was one other small item on
the ballot: a referendum. On the same ballot as Will, there was
a referendum to eliminate the office of Lake County auditor. It
also passed! Will was elected and put out of a job the same day.
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