1 Vote Can Make a World of Difference : Importance of Each Ballot Cast Is Underscored by Tiny Victory Margins in Some Races

If anyone thinks that his or her vote, or any one vote, really doesn’t make a difference, studying the final results of some of the elections held around Orange County on Tuesday should make them think again.

In balloting for two seats on the San Juan Capistrano City Council, Carolyn Nash was the top vote-getter with 5,136 votes. Winning the second seat on the ballot was Collene Campbell with 4,136 votes, an even 1,000-vote difference.

Finishing third, and missing election to that second available seat, was Jerry V. Harris, with 4,135 votes, just one vote less than Campbell--but enough to make Harris a loser.

In another paper-thin margin, Tony Lam in Westminster became the first Vietnamese-American immigrant elected to a city council in Orange County when he won a two-year seat by just 43 votes out of the 21,740 cast.

Lam’s victory margin represented less than one vote per election precinct throughout the city.

If anyone needs more proof of the importance of one ballot they only need to look at the other voting in Westminster for two other full four-year council seats that were also on the ballot. In that election contest, Lyn Gillespie missed winning office by just 52 votes out of 36,325 cast in the 63 precincts. That, too, was less than one vote per precinct.

Things were frustratingly evenhanded in the balloting in Orange to determine whether an island of homes in the unincorporated county area would annex to the city. Of the total of 30 ballots reported cast in the unofficial final returns, 15 favored annexation--and 15 opposed it. If only there were 31 votes cast, the matter would have been resolved.

The tally of some still uncounted absentee ballots, or possible recounts, always can change the unofficial results reported from Election Day. But there is a lesson to be learned for future elections.

Countywide, this election year, 73% of the county’s more than 1.2 million registered voters bothered to exercise their voting right in Tuesday’s general election.

How might the 333,017 people who stayed home have made a difference in some of the Orange County races and ballot propositions if they had bothered to go to the polls? We suspect a lot of candidates and residents are wondering about that today.

The difference in the outcome of some elections too often is less than one vote per precinct, or just one vote. That’s something to think about anytime you decide to stay home because you think it doesn’t really matter.