Election dissection (and trusting your neighbors)

It’s the morning after Election Day.

I woke up this morning and didn’t find the answer to the question that kept me tossing and turning all night: Did I win?

You see, I ran as a write-in candidate for school board.

I ran hard. I had ads, a door-to-door campaign, a social media presence all day every day, a website, yard signs. I had the whole “campaign thing.”

The polls closed in my town at 8 o'clock. Less than an hour later, friends started texting me: “Do you know if you won?”

When I got home from collecting my yard signs from the polling places, my wife asked: “Do you know if you won?”

The questions and the texts kept on coming as I tried to enjoy watching The Great British Baking Show.

Finally, at around 11 o'clock, I texted the mayor: “How do I find out if I’m going to get any sleep tonight?”

She called me back within two minutes.

The mayor explained that write-in votes have to go to the county election commissioners for certification. The election commission looks at each write-in vote and decides whether it will count.

For example: If someone wrote “Brad Erwin” on their ballot (my name is spelled “Irwin”), the commission has to decide if the voter intended to vote for me (or if she really meant to vote for some guy named Brad Erwin).

For this reason, I won’t know the results of my election for up to two weeks. The commission has to take its time to do a thorough job.

Why does it matter?

Because every American citizen has an equal right to use her or his equal vote. Each citizen is a cell in the democratic organism that is the United States of America. Each citizen’s right to vote and to have her vote count is sacred.

So, if a voter really meant to cast her sacred vote for Brad Erwin, then it is the public’s sacred duty to make sure her vote for Brad Erwin counts.

If we lose this, we lose everything.

Now, how do we do that?

How do we protect the sanctity of every citizen’s vote?

Broadly, we have two main sources of protection.

The first is federal law, starting with the U.S. Constitution and on down through 244 years of perfecting the laws that govern elections in this land.

American election law, like America itself, is a work in progress. When we started this American experiment, the laws recognized that white men (who usually owned land) had the right to vote. Those laws excluded everyone else. I don’t know anyone who wants to go back to that!

Over the years, federal law expanded to recognize and uphold the rights of more Americans to self-govern through their votes. For example: the 15th Amendment (non-white citizens), the 19th Amendment (female citizens), the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (made it illegal for states to make it difficult for people to vote), and 26th Amendment (18-year old citizens).

So, when it comes to federal law over the course of 244 years, we are getting better at recognizing and upholding the sanctity of each person’s vote.

Are there problems with the system we have in place now? Yes, but as you can see from a quick look at our history, our system was never perfect. It always needs improvement and tinkering. As long as we agree that every individual citizen’s vote is sacred and deserves our collective recognition and protection, we will keep the American experiment alive to a good end.

But I don’t want to dwell on federal election law.

I want to talk about the second source of protection for the sanctity of each individual citizen’s vote.

It is this: Go look out your window.

If you’re at home, look up and down your street.

That is your second source of protection.

It’s your neighbors.

Do you trust your neighbors?

Let’s go back to my write-in campaign for school board.

Yesterday, people in my town went to polls at five precincts.

Volunteers from the community–my neighbors–were the people working at the polls. My neighbors were the ones checking voter registration, helping people get set up with their ballot, and making sure that each voter properly filled out and turned in her ballot.

If you voted in person yesterday, it was your neighbors who worked the precinct polling site where you went to vote.

Your town, like mine, has a clerk. The clerk’s job is to oversee elections.

In my town, the clerk is not appointed; she is hired by city council. The five people on city council are all neighbors of mine, elected by the people of the town. When our town hires a clerk, it is my neighbors on city council (elected by the town at large) who make the choice. Clerk is a nonpartisan position and the hire is based on qualifications for the job.

In my town, the clerk is someone I know well. She is active at my brother-in-law’s church. Her daughter used to run the home daycare where we took our son three days a week for two years. She is a neighbor.

The clerk (neighbor hired by neighbors) and the poll workers (neighbors) are the ones who gather up all the ballots in our town. They release initial numbers (this is what you see on election night), then send the ballots to the county board of canvassers for certification.

The board of canvassers will be the people who decide whether the voter meant “Brad Erwin” or really meant “BT Irwin” when she wrote in her vote for local school board.

Who are the canvassers?

You guessed it: Neighbors.

In our county, the board of canvassers comprises four citizens–two Democrats and two Republicans–who are responsible for certifying the ballots that come in from our town’s clerk.

The votes don’t become official until the four neighbors on the board of canvassers says they are official.

From the county board of canvassers, the votes pass on up through the state and federal election system.

Here’s my point in bringing all of this up: I have faith in our election system because I trust my neighbors.

The poll workers at the precinct, the city clerk, and the county canvassers are all everyday people who live where I live and work where I work. Every day, I share the road with them, shop with them in the same stores, take my son to the same school where they take their children, worship with them in the same church. Every day, I tacitly trust them with my life and the life of my family. Every day, I trust them to do the right thing.

Why should it be any different at election time?

When I see my own neighbors working the polls, counting the votes, and certifying the results, it gives me confidence in the system. It gives me confidence in the results that come out of the system.

It is easy to look at a national election and think that big, powerful forces are pulling strings.

I agree that big, powerful forces are at work in a national election, but I think we too often imagine the wrong ones.

The big, powerful force that is shaping national elections is like a watershed.

Drops of water fall from the sky, run together into rivulets on the ground, find a stream, flow to a bigger stream, flow into a river, and find their way to a lake or ocean. The power in a national election is not the “ocean”; it is all of those drops of water (votes) flowing together to shape the future.

And what channels those votes?

Your neighbors working at the precinct, town hall, and county office.

At the end of (election day), the question is not what you believe about the national politicians; it is what you believe about your fellow citizens.

Do you trust your fellow citizens (your neighbors) to make good choices?

Do you trust your fellow citizens (your neighbors) to protect and shepherd your vote?

The country will be fine if your candidate loses.

But the country will not be fine if you lose your faith and trust in your fellow citizens. Losing faith and trust in your neighbors means the body is dying at the cellular level, eating itself alive until it become too weak to survive.

I have faith in you. I trust you. I believe you will do the right thing, not just for yourself, but for me and my family, too.

That is why I believe in the integrity of our elections and our nation.

Even if you really did mean to vote for “Brad Erwin” instead of me!

Onward and upward.