TO VOTE OR NOT TO VOTE:

I Want to tell you a story, I will call this the one vote story.

I will start at the end. Texas’ statehood. Now I am assuming that my readers are all the truly intelligent people out there. So I do not need to repeat that Texas was voted in as the 28th state in 1845.

But what you may not know is that Texas was admitted… well let me put it this way, Texas needed at least 36 votes to gain statehood. The votes gave Texas Statehood by one vote.
They got admitted as a state because of ONE (1) vote. The surprise was that a senator who voted for them, one of those truly NEEDED votes was Harrigan a senator from Indiana, in fact there was surprise that he voted for Texas’ statehood because he seemed opposed. But I digress…
(“yeah but he was a congressman, my vote doesn’t count like that.”)

Well then, let’s see how Harrigan came to be a congressman.

6 years earlier, in 1839, State Legislator Madison Marsh Voted for Senator Harrigan, there was a toss up over who would be voted into congressional office as the junior senator, it was up to the state legislators, to pick the position for which Harrigan ran. There were three people running for the position and there ended up a three way tie in the legislation. Madison Marsh was THE deciding vote on Harrigan’s election. In fact the Amazing thing is that Harrigan won by ONE vote

Well, well, well… very nice but still he was a state legislator, I am just a “common man” what difference can I make?
Hmm O.K….

In 1837 Madison Marsh was running as a candidate for state legislator. And what do you know… he was elected into office based on ONE VOTE.
But for that one vote that election would have ended in a tie. AND that vote was cast by an average everyday guy. In Indiana he was probably a farmer who worked with his hands everyday, just like most of us today.

See even though we might want to say this election doesn’t matter it does. We have issues coming up to deal with and we need to make sure we are properly represented.
A long time ago One man one vote made the difference to whether Texas would be a state or not. Do you think that was the thought he had when he voted? No He was voting for the guy HE thought would best represent him, who voted for a guy who he thought would do the right thing nationally who voted for Texas.

The guy casting that vote for state legislator could never have known that that would lead to anew state being added to the union.
But that one vote that he cast helped to change a nation’s history in a way that has been recognized worldwide though he is not well remembered today. Your vote can do the same now.