As I have walked door to door in my district for multiple elections over the last 8 years--I always found it peculiar that there are a percentage of citizens who don't vote. And they'll tell you this un-apologetically. "My vote doesn't count, so why should I bother?" This is something I have heard from many. And the low percentage of eligible voters who cast ballots in important local primaries is further proof that many more eligible citizens who won't admit that they don't vote, display this actual tendency via their inaction on election day.
So yesterday's story out of Mississippi is very illustrative of the consequences of this problem. There, a vote for a state representative's seat ended in a dead-even tie, with each candidate receiving exactly 4,589 votes. Just one voter, from either party---that did not vote--could have changed this entire election!! And there was a lot at stake.
Instead, this election between Democrat Blaine Eaton and Republican Mark Tullos was settled by drawing straws in a "strange ceremony" presided over by Governor Phil Bryant.
from the New York Times:
"Resorting to a game of chance to break an electoral tie is common in many states, and coin tosses are often used to break ties in smaller, local races. But in few instances had the pot been as rich as this: If (Republican Candidate) Mr. Tullos had won, his party would have won a three fifths super-majority in the house, the threshold required to pass revenue related bills..At stake, potentially, was hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue, as the three-fifths rule has allowed the Democratic minority to block Republican tax-cut proposals in the past.."
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