CLAY COUNTY - The foundation of our democracy is that every vote counts.

Filling out a ballot and mailing it, returning it to the elections office or standing in line to cast a vote is more than patriotic; it’s the most fundamental right a citizen has to affect change and policy.

“It’s important for people to have skin in the game,” said Clay County Supervisor of Elections Chris Chambless. “Elections have consequences and consequences have repercussions.”

Voters in Clay County have been getting the message. In the first week of Early Voting, added with vote-by-mail ballots, 61,448 registered voters had already voted. That’s nearly 40% of the county’s 155,844 eligible voters already in the coffers with five Early Voting days remaining and the General Election on Nov. 5 still to go.

However, regardless of race, the number of voters doesn’t always equate to a clear-cut winner. Sometimes, a winner is determined by a single vote.

Locally, in 1991, incumbent Dennis Frick and challenger Ted Coleman each received 438 votes for a seat on the Orange Park Town Council. The Town Code stated the Town Council could choose to break the tie. Judge L. Haldane Taylor issued an injunction to delay the outcome.

On Nov. 26 – three weeks after the election – the council voted 3-0 to put Coleman on the council. After a motion was made to approve Coleman as the council member, Mayor Tillman adjourned the meeting, and he and council member Frick left the meeting. Vice Mayor Carlos Bedsole reconvened the meeting, and the three remaining members voted Coleman to the council.

Again, proving every vote matters, the tie could have been avoided if Frick’s son, a registered voter, had remembered to go to the polls that day.

In a special election on March 7, 2006, Huntley Redfearn received 101 votes for mayor of Keystone Heights, Mary Lou Hildreth got 100, and Tony Brown got 99.

The top two advanced to a run-off two weeks later, while Brown was eliminated. As he started to leave the elections office, county officials said he was entitled to request a recount.

“They went out and got me,” Brown said. “I told them I wasn’t going to mess with it. I didn’t want to waste the (city’s) $2,000 it would have cost to do it.”

Brown was a volunteer fireman for the city. He learned fellow firemen forgot to vote.

“I laughed about it then. If they had voted, I would have won,” he said. “I still laugh about it. Every vote does matter.”

Hildreth won the run-off. Redfearn also lost an election for Keystone Heights mayor in 1999 by a single vote.

There have been plenty of other nail-biters. A single vote decided all of these races: George Wiggins defeated Fred Belair for a seat in the New Hampshire State Senate in 2022; Chris Poulos beat Tony Morrison in 2022 in the Connecticut House of Representatives race; Anne Ruwet got past John Kovaleski in 2022 in the Connecticut House of Representatives race; Gus Salley edged Morran D. Harris in 1970 the race for the Missouri House of Representatives; and Mark Tullos won against Blaine Eaton to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 2015.

So remember, get out and vote. While it may not determine a winner, it will help preserve democracy.