Today is (midterm) Election Day, USA. What a privilege is ours to be able to vote freely. We have seen in the news of late the areas in Ukraine where citizens were asked to vote yes or no on being annexed as part of Russia. Armed Russian guards stood watch as people cast their ballots and, guess what, the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of becoming part of Russia! In some countries, that is the way people are forced to “vote.” Not here in our great homeland, America. For the most part, our elections are still free and, whereas there was much confusion and consternation over the irregularities of the 2020 Presidential Election, hopefully we have learned from those unpleasant experiences and safeguards have been put into place to assure that when we cast our ballot today, it will be counted for the intended candidate.
An old man was walking along a beach one day with his grandson, who picked up each starfish they passed and threw it back into the sea. “If I left them up here,” the boy said, “they would dry up and die. I am saving their lives.” “But,” protested the old man, “the beach goes on for miles, and there are millions of starfish. What you are doing won’t make any difference.” The lad looked at the starfish in his hand, gently threw it into the ocean, and answered, “It makes a difference to this one.”
You might just be thinking, “I have one vote. If I do not make it to the voting place today, it really will not make a difference. It’s just one vote.” But one vote—added to another vote and another vote and on and on—can and does make a difference.
One intelligent vote. There are so many critical issues at stake in this election. One preacher friend said he believed this midterm election was the most important election of his lifetime! Woke issues, democracy, crime and how to handle criminals, education and when or whether second and third-graders should be introduced to gender and transgender issues, and much more. It is spiritual warfare and the “ultra-progressives” of our land, a minority of the electorate, want to radically change the face of America and entrench us into a global, one-world state. Your vote does make a difference. One vote does!
So educate yourself. Voter guides assembled and distributed by patriotic organizations, such as Advance America here in Indiana, have published and distributed non-partisan records on how each candidate stands on key issues like those mentioned above.
In 1883 in Allentown, New Jersey, a wooden facsimile of a man—the kind seen in those days in front of cigar stores—was placed on the ballot for Justice of Peace. The candidate was registered under the fictitious name of Abner Robbins. When the ballots were counted, Abner won over the incumbent, Sam Davis, by seven votes. Again, in 1938, the name Boston Curtis appeared on the ballot for Republican Committeeman from Wilson, Washington. Actually, Boston Curtis was a mule. The town’s mayor sponsored the animal to demonstrate that people too often know very little about the candidates. He proved his point. The mule won!
Razor-thin margins regularly elect candidates to office; then, after elections, as is the case in the United States Senate where often votes on major pieces of legislation are 50-50, one vote, the vote of the sitting vice-president of the United States, will determine the final outcome. Vice-President Kamala Harris, in her first year in office, cast 15 tie-breaking votes, the most of any first-year vice-president in the history of the United States. One vote resulted in major differences in legislative outcomes, such as the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (2022), on which the Senate voted 50-50 and VP Kamala Harris broke the tie with her one vote. She cast 26 tie-breaking votes through August 7, 2022, third most of any vice-president—and that less than half-way through her four-year tenure as vice-president. So, one vote is important in securing the election of a candidate where the outcome going into election-day is a “toss-up”; and it is important after the election when—as is the case with the sitting vice-president—one tie-breaking vote can and does change the direction of a nation of laws, checks and balances.
Doubtless, one vote can make a world of difference. (Remember, Republican Senator John McCain cast the deciding “no” vote on the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act on July 28, 2017). One vote! That’s what you have to invest today in your republic. Spend it wisely. Invest it well. If Jesus does not come soon, your one vote will impact significantly how your grandchildren live. Today, Election Day, vote!
“Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)
YOU and GOD 