After a recount of votes on Tuesday night, it was determined that Democrats will make up at least half of Virginia’s state House of Delegates. According to The Hill, “Shelly Simonds (D) gained a net of 11 votes, enough to hand her victory over incumbent Del. David Yancey (R) by a single vote.”
These eleven votes brought the contest to 11,608-11,607 in what the New York Times calls “a civics lesson in every-vote counts.”
This will be the first time in two decades that Democrats make up at least half of the House of Delegates in the state. Prior to the recount, it was determined that Republicans had a 51-49 majority, which meant that Republicans had lost fifteen seats to Democrats. This was seen as a response to Trump’s unpopularity in his first year as POTUS.
The information that Republicans no longer control the State House, of course, is interpreted as an even bigger “F you, Trump” than the first count implied.
The front page of Virginia’s Daily Press. pic.twitter.com/hoCLaV0QXZ
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 20, 2017
The margin by which Simonds won speaks volumes to the power of showing up to elections. According to FairVote, the US has a lower voter turnout than most established democracies. In recent elections, only about 60% of the voting eligible population votes during presidential election years, and 40% of the voting eligible population votes during midterm elections. These numbers are even lower for younger voting eligible citizen: according to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, only about 50% of eligible voters ages 18-29 voted in the 2016 election, which is about the same percentage as the 2012 election.
I don’t want to live in a world of “what if’s,” but imagine how different the world might be today if that percentage had been 90% or even 75%. And, of course, we can imagine “what if” one or two of the Democrat voters hadn’t shown up to the Virginia House of Delegates elections. Your vote has power!