Not too long ago, the election in Virginia yielded massive Democratic pickups, from the governor’s mansion down to seats in their House of Delegates. Before that election, the chamber consisted of only thirty-four Democrats. Now, with the final recount complete, Democrats have flipped enough seats to wrestle control out of the hands of the GOP, who have commanded a majority since 2000. The final seat to turn blue rested on a margin of 11,608 to 11,607.
At this point, every possible iteration of “every vote matters” has been flipped and reworked and pushed into print, but it still bears repeating. Everyone nodded politely and tacitly acknowledged that every single vote mattered when learning about civics in school. But a lot of us, and especially those who keep up with politics these days, know that most elections do not hinge on the decision of one person.
North Carolina is an example of this, and Virginia has fought to overcome it in this most recent upset. When the districts are drawn fairly, every vote does matter. Representatives have to be conscientious of their constituents because they have the burden of reelection to reckon with. If districts are unabashedly gerrymandered, such as to render one party irrelevant, that is unhealthy for the state.
What Virginia demonstrates is that an enthusiastic voting base can overcome even blatant obstructions to victory. In a state where Democrats consistently win statewide, Republicans somehow maintained majorities with two-thirds of the seats. That somehow is not a mystery — it’s the result of snake-like districts cracking and packing across the commonwealth.
Another ploy to suppress turnout is voter ID. Voter ID laws are offered as the panacea for voter fraud, a pandemic consistently debunked by studies. After the upset in Alabama, a state which has voter ID, Republicans took at least some respite in lauding voter ID on the networks. “How, pray tell, could Democrats win with voter ID laws, if they were so restrictive,” they would ask.
A quick answer to that is simple: it is meant to make voting more difficult, not impossible. The real takeaway from Alabama is that minority voters, on whom the Democratic party depends in the South especially, are willing to jump through any hurdles necessary to vote in these elections. That should scare the GOP.
These examples in Virginia and Alabama should have two effects on North Carolina voters. First, it should excite them. If Democrats can perform so well in similar environments in the South, they can certainly do well in one of the most historically progressive states in the region. Roy Cooper and Josh Stein show that there are plenty of voters who can push Democrats over the top even in a year when Trump carried the state by 173,000 votes.
Second, it should show that energy is not enough. Action is essential: every single vote matters. Virginia Republicans held 51 seats before the recount; now, they only have 50. Control of the House hinged on a single vote, in a single district. The Republicans and Democrats will have to come together and figure out a power-sharing method.
If nothing else, maybe it will remind politicians in Virginia that bipartisanship often renders results more palatable for everyone.
Kirk Kovach is a native North Carolinian interested in writing about politics, communication and culture.
Yes, every vote counted in this one election contest. But unfortunately, Virginia, most of the time in the overwhelming proportion of elections, our votes don’t count because our elections are structurally non-competitive. Eighty to ninety percent of all legislative and congressional elections in the country are won by non-competitive margins of 10 percentage points or more (usually much more). Because the electoral college gives a handful of battleground states disproportionate power, even presidential elections have become a non-event for most American voters. Until we reform the structure of our elections to make them competitive and thus make politicians accountable to voters, the fact that an occasional election may turn into a nail-biter will do nothing to advance our democracy.
Your gloating seems a little premature:
DEC 20 2017, 4:48 PM ET
Court rules Virginia House race is tied, winner to be picked ‘by lot’
by DARTUNORRO CLARK
Grasping at straws is one way to win an election, at least in Virginia.
A Democrat’s stunning one-vote victory in a hotly contested race for the Virginia House of Delegates this week suddenly became a tie on Wednesday after a three-judge panel ruled that an additional ballot should have been counted for the Republican.
Now, the winner will be determined “by lot,” according to state law, and that could mean pulling a name out of a hat, a coin toss — or drawing straws.
The state Board of Elections said it hadn’t decided on the next move.
“Once the court has issued a final order, we can better evaluate what next steps are necessary for the State Board of Elections or Department of Elections to take,” said Department of Elections Commissioner Edgardo Cortes.
On Wednesday, Democrat Shelly Simonds was declared the apparent winner in the race for the 94th District, beating incumbent Republican David Yancey after a wild recount had Simonds ahead by one vote, flipped a red seat to blue, and created a 50-50 tie between the two parties in the Virginia House.
She won by 11,608 to 11,607, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. But the final tally now stands at 11,608 to 11,608.
Gary Anderson, the Newport News Circuit Court clerk, told NBC News that Yancey’s camp brought a statement to the judicial hearing on Wednesday from a county official stating that the official had made a mistake by not counting a ballot during the recount.
The ballot in question had a bubble filled in for Ed Gillespie, the Republican who lost the governor’s race in November, Simonds and Yancey. However, the bubble for Gillespie had an X mark and the bubble for Simonds had a slash-like mark. Anderson said the judges took the filled in bubble for Yancey, which was not crossed out, as intent to vote for him.
James Alcorn, chairman of the state Board of Elections, told The Richmond-Times Dispatch that ties are “rare,” but they have been seen in local elections.
“In those situations, the electoral board typically draws names out of a hat. I believe one locality uses an old-fashioned tricorner hat for these occasions,” Alcorn told the paper. “The State Board typically draws names out of a glass bowl when we’re picking the order of candidates for the ballot.”
Anderson said he does not know for sure if it’s a landmark case, but added that he has never seen anything like it.
“Personally, I know of nothing in history like this,” he said. “Several people I’ve chatted with think this is precedent-setting.”