Did you know that Adolph Hitler became head of the Nazi Party and thereby the leader of Germany by just one vote? If just one person had voted differently or one additional person had voted, we would not have had World War II. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers would not have died on bloody battlefields. Millions would not have died in concentration camps. Just one vote a few years earlier damaged the entire world. That’s the power of one vote.
Did you know that Rutherford B. Hayes became President of the United States in 1877 by just one vote in the Electoral College? Did you know that the congressman who cast that one electoral vote was elected by just one vote? It was President Hayes who pulled federal troops out of the South after the Civil War leaving those newly freed from slavery at the merciless rage of the Ku Klux Klan and others. As a result, the rights of African Americans to vote and exercise citizenship in the Old South and other places were snuffed out in no time flat. Just one vote set back African Americans and this country for 90 years. That’s the power of one vote.
Did you know that Texas became a state by just one vote in 1845? Otherwise, it would have been an independent country. Without that one vote 120 years earlier, we would not have had President Lyndon Johnson from Texas. Therefore, we may not have had a Voting Rights Act insuring African Americans the right to vote. Just one vote made the difference for the whole country. That one vote eventually made it possible for Senator Barack Obama to become President Barack Obama. That’s the power of one vote.
Did you know that California became a state by one vote in 1850? If California had not become a state, Californian Earl Warren would not have become Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. It was Chief Justice Warren that led the Court to strike down the segregationist "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy vs. Ferguson in the now famous Brown vs. Board of Education case. Without that one vote some 104 years earlier, we may still have legal segregation in these United States of America. That’s the power of one vote.
Did you know that one more vote per precinct in Florida in 2000 would have elected Al Gore President rather than George W. Bush? With just one more vote per precinct, we most likely would not have been stuck in two wars, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. We most likely would not have been mired in the Great Recession. That’s the power of one vote.
Did you know that Don Siegelman would have been Governor of Alabama for a second term in 2002 if he had received just one more vote per precinct? If he had won, we would not have this fight about bingo with the loss of thousands of jobs. Our economy and public education would most likely be much better. The voting rights of minorities would not be under such great attack in Alabama. That’s the power of one vote.
Did you know that Jim Folsom, Jr. would have been Governor of Alabama in 1994 if he had received just one more vote per voting box? Folsom had already brought Mercedes to Alabama. We can only speculate about what else he would have brought to Alabama. Some did not vote because they thought their vote did not count. Well, it counted, but against their own interests because they did not vote. That’s the power of one vote.
Did you know that established interests increase their power when we don’t vote? Did you know they have a strategy to make us think our "one vote" does not count? Did you know that every time we don’t vote, our vote counts for them and against our interests? Did you know each of us has one vote for each office on the ballot in each election? Just think about it because that’s the power of the vote.
Did you know that it takes about half an hour to vote? Did you know there are 17,520 half hours in a year? Doesn’t it make sense to invest just one half hour in this election when you still have 17,519 half hours left this year for everything else? When you vote, you invest so little and receive so much. Just think about it because that’s the power of one vote.
We never know how our one vote will combine with the one vote of others to literally change the world through subsequent events. Please don’t be one of those who look back after this or other elections and say, "If I had just voted." That’s the power of one vote.
EPILOGUE – A few of us can envision that which does not exist without prior examples. Some of us cannot envision that which does not exist even with examples. Many of us can envision that which does not exist when we see related examples. I hope this Sketches stimulates each group in its own way.
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