Each election year, stories abound about people somehow being disenfranchised.
For those of us who actually make it to the now electronic booths on lunch breaks, between classes or despite life in general to cast our vote, wouldn’t it be nice to know that our efforts get us more than the “I voted” sticker?
Wouldn’t it be ideal to imagine that your hike to the Grand Ballroom, your local precinct or the post office (to mail off that absentee ballot) was to – gasp – actually elect a political leader? We’ve all been told that every vote counts. And while some races subscribe to this theory more readily than others, it’s something that all of us who exercise the right to vote have to believe.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, this year’s election results had already been announced prior to 23,000 early and absentee ballots being counted in Leon County. Ion Sancho, Leon County’s supervisor of elections, said the uncounted ballots were unlikely to change the direction in which the election was headed.
While this may all be true, I beg the powers that be to humor me and the thousands who died for the privilege to count the votes before announcing the winner. Otherwise, it’s going to take more than Left Eye on VH1 to explain the math involved in understanding how every vote counts when every vote isn’t counted – until the election is over.
Alaythia Burkins for the Editorial Board.