Thread by @nonsequiteuse

Count Every Vote / Every Vote Counts: A Story About Commitment to Fairness and Democracy

This is a story about my friend @LongoriaTx, Harris County's new Elections Administrator, & her runoff election in 2019 for Houston City Council against the incumbent.

Runoff election night, as we watch returns, the race tightens. At the evening's end, Longoria is losing by 12 votes to the incumbent council member. It's time for provisional ballots to be reviewed and cured if possible. We don't know which way those ballots will break.

After much 'that's not how we do it usually, but okay if you wanna,' Longoria & the incumbent's campaigns get a list of 558 names of people who voted provisionally. The list is lacking in key info, like which "John Smith" in District H is the one who voted a provisional ballot.

A team of campaign volunteers researches the list and IDs 41 provisional ballots connected to voters in the district, but all we have are their names and that they are in that district. So we have to research their addresses.

I won't use the actual name, but there are 33 people named "John Smith" registered to vote in the district, so we have to check with all of them to see who voted a provisional ballot. Fortunately, some of the 41 people on the list have FAR less common names.

We then call if we have numbers - spoiler alert, we rarely do - and send out people to knock on doors to ask people (1) if they voted provisionally and (2) if so, do they need instructions on how to cure their ballot.

Remember, we're trying to close a 12-vote gap to win.

We do not know, of course, how many of these voters might break for Longoria. Her response is that she does not care who they voted for - they voted, and their vote should count. We keep on it.

Longoria herself knocks some doors where people say yes, they voted & want to cure their ballot (most needed to take valid ID to the clerk's office to do so), but several admit they aren't sure they voted for her, or even that they voted in her race.

Doesn't matter.

In case you haven't figured this out, Longoria is the honey badger of voting - if you voted, and you did so properly, your vote should count, no matter who you voted for.

At the end of the process, we help people cure their ballots. Longoria had been losing by 12 votes, but thanks to her team's efforts, the were now new votes to be added to the total!

The final count once the canvass is turned in? The gap has now increased by 4 votes. Longoria has still lost, but is behind by 16 rather than 12 votes. She graciously concedes, having analyzed the likelihood of a recount changing the outcome & concluding it won't.

This is what democracy looks like. This is what a commitment to counting every vote looks like - you do it because it is the right thing to do, the thing required by the law, even if there's a chance you won't like the outcome.

That's who'll be running the Harris County elections. Someone deeply committed to fairness, to following the law, and to everyone's constitutional right to vote.

That's what voters throughout the United States deserve, too. #CountEveryVote #EveryVoteCounts

TL;dr

#CountEveryVote
#EveryVoteCounts
#CountEveryVote
#EveryVoteCounts
#CountEveryVote
#EveryVoteCounts
#CountEveryVote
#EveryVoteCounts

@threadreaderapp unroll please