The Power of One

Good news on the Washington state election front. Nearly two months after the November election, that state is somewhat closer to knowing the new governor’s name. Close is a key word. At the moment, the Democrat, Christine Gregoire, leads the Republican, Dino Rossi, by 130 votes out of 2.9 million. The results are due to be certified Thursday, but a court challenge may well be on the way.

That means that the leadership of this important state could be decided by the number of guests you might invite to a small wedding or a big party -- a housewife, attorney, salesman, teacher, rancher, chef and 7-Eleven clerk, maybe -- people who voted with some or not much thought. Or by omission, by a corresponding number of folks who would have voted differently but never got around to casting a ballot because, after all, what difference could one puny vote make?

The nation’s recent spate of close elections brings home as sharply as an arrow in Sherwood Forest the importance of a single vote, even in a large, diverse place like the United States. It is surprisingly difficult for the delicate human mind -- at least the American mind -- to grasp the import of one number: 1.

Does one person or vote really matter? Ask those individual Ukrainians who recently spent a week of wintry nights in the squares to support honest vote-counting. Does one person not littering matter in a garbage-strewn world? Or one person picking some up? Does a high school counselor steering one life in a positive direction really matter? Or one cowboy in eastern Washington not bothering to vote when he goes into Spokane?

Alas, speaking of individual votes that matter, it may not be too late for some to cast their votes in Washington -- the judges who will probably get their say when the state’s election goes where close American elections seem to go too often nowadays.