Your Vote Counts

Daniel Richardson

That’s probably something you learned and believed in elementary school. But somewhere along the way, after learning about the Electoral College, safe congressional districts, red states and blue states, the idea that your individual vote really matters may have started sounding more like a civic slogan than a literal truth.

In a national election involving more than 150 million voters, it is easy to feel like one ballot is little more than a drop in the ocean.

Local elections are different.

When we elect a county mayor, sheriff, commissioner or school-board member, the pool of voters is much smaller. In rural counties and individual voting districts, races are often decided by only a handful of ballots.

Across Tennessee, the evidence is easy to find.

In 2018, Glenn Jacobs won the Republican nomination for Knox County mayor by just 23 votes. He went on to win the general election and has served as county mayor ever since.

Twenty-three votes determined who would receive the nomination for the top executive office in one of Tennessee’s largest counties.

In Carter County, the 2014 Republican primary for sheriff was decided by only 68 votes. Dexter Lunceford defeated an eight-year incumbent in what was described as one of the closest political races in the county’s primary-election history.

In Hamilton County, a County Commission race in 2022 was decided by 20 votes.

Then there was a Scott County school-board race in 2024 that demonstrated the power of a single ballot in the most literal way possible.

Diane Chambers Smith and Carlebe Terry each received 218 votes. The race was tied, but one provisional ballot remained outstanding. The voter had been unable to provide identification at the polls and was given time to bring the proper identification to the county election office.

That voter made the trip.

The ballot was counted for Chambers, deciding the race by one vote.

One person went to the trouble of returning to the election office, and that one person determined who would serve on the local school board.

Tennessee has even seen the future of an entire municipality decided by one vote. In 2010, residents of Lakewood voted on whether to dissolve the city’s charter and become part of Metro Nashville. The measure passed by a one-vote margin.

These are not made-up examples from a civics textbook.

They happened here in Tennessee.

They also demonstrate why local elections deserve more attention than they often receive.

Presidential and congressional elections dominate the news. They attract the money, television coverage, social-media arguments and endless political advertisements.

But the offices on Thursday’s ballot may affect your daily life more directly.

Your county mayor helps oversee county operations and budgets. Your sheriff is responsible for local law enforcement and the county jail. Commissioners make decisions about taxes, roads, spending and local services. School-board members help determine policies affecting children, parents and teachers.

These officials live among us. We see them at the grocery store, church, ballgames and community events. Their decisions are not distant or theoretical.

They are local.

Yet local elections are also the elections people are most likely to ignore. Many voters can identify presidential candidates years before an election but struggle to name the people serving on their own county commission.

That is unfortunate, because these are precisely the races where a small number of informed citizens can make the greatest difference.

Of course, voting alone is not enough.

Casting an uninformed ballot based on the most familiar name, the biggest campaign sign or something repeated on social media is not responsible citizenship. We should take time to learn about the candidates.

What experience do they have?

What have they accomplished in their current positions?

What do they believe the office is responsible for?

What are their plans?

Have they demonstrated good judgment, integrity and an ability to work with others?

Read the candidate profiles and election coverage in this newspaper. Look at a sample ballot before arriving at the polling place. Visit the candidates’ websites or social-media pages. Ask questions of people who know them. Compare their qualifications, records and ideas.

You may not find a candidate with whom you agree on every issue. That is rarely possible. But you can make a thoughtful judgment about who is best prepared to serve.

I am not using this space to tell you whom to support.

I am asking you to take the responsibility seriously.

By the time you read this, early voting will have ended. Election Day is Thursday, Aug. 6. If you have not already voted, make a plan to do so.

Find your polling location. Review your ballot. Learn about the candidates. Then show up.

It is easy to assume that other people will make the decision and that one missing vote will not matter.

But ask the candidates who lost by 68 votes.

Ask the county commissioner who won by 20.

Ask the mayor who won his primary by 23.

Ask the two school-board candidates who were tied at 218 votes apiece.

Your vote is more than an expression of your opinion. It is a small piece of the authority citizens possess in a representative government. When you leave it unused, you allow others to make the decision for you.

So educate yourself, make your choice and get out to vote Thursday.

In local elections, “every vote counts” is not merely something we tell children.

It is arithmetic.