I recently was told by someone who votes every Election Day that she is planning to sit this election out. Disillusioned with today’s state of politics and completely dissatisfied with the quality of candidates, her decision to take a pass on casting her vote is hardly unique. Frustration has grown among voters who believe that the two-party system isn’t representative of the people it is designed to serve. Many believe politics is broken and even those who have traditionally been engaged in the civic process now choose to avoid it altogether. While the easiest path can be one of ambivalence, it’s important to remember that in every election, regardless of who shows up to the polls, a candidate is elected. He or she will ultimately end up with the power to make decisions that will impact all of us, for better or worse, close elections have become the norm. The 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore resulted in Gore narrowly losing the electoral college vote to Bush after a recount in Florida where 0.009 percent of the votes cast in the state, or 537 votes, decided the margin. Nailbiter elections have also occurred right here in the Hudson Valley. When I was elected to the State Senate in 2020, I won by a margin of one percent, which equated to 1,269 votes, and my race wasn’t the closest. In 2022, the margin in the race for the 18th Congressional District, which turned out to be one of the most competitive in the nation, was decided by just over one percent of the voters. That same year, a difference of eight votes crowned the victor in the 99th State Assembly District race which makes up a significant portion of Orange County. This trend continued into last year’s election where the race for the Town of Wallkill Supervisor ended in a near tie with incumbent Supervisor George Serrano topping his opponent Neil Meyer by only two votes in a race that saw just over 3,800 votes cast. It’s sometimes said that no person’s single vote makes a difference, but this simply is not true. Each vote not only makes our democracy more representative of its citizens but also can be the deciding factor in who makes decisions that impact all of us. The message this election day is simple: You may be disenchanted, you may be disengaged, you may believe that politics is broken. But you still need to vote and be a voice in our democracy.
