IF YOU THINK ONE VOTE DOESN’T MAKE A DIFFERENCE, THINK AGAIN!

The most often heard excuse for not voting in an election is “my one little vote won’t make a difference.” Yet history is full of instances proving the enormous power of one single vote. In many cases, the course of nations has been changed because one individual ballot was cast — or not cast — depending upon your point of view.

Consider this:

• In 1645, one vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England.
• In 1649, one vote literally cost King Charles I of England his head. The vote to behead him was 67 against and 68 for — the ax fell thanks to one vote.
• In 1714, one vote placed King George I on the throne of England and restored the monarchy.
• In 1776, one vote gave America the English language instead of German (at least according to folk lore.)
• In 1800, the electoral college met in the respective states to cast their two votes for President. At that time, the U.S. Constitution provided the candidate receiving the most electoral votes would become President and the candidate receiving the second highest number of votes would become Vice President. When the results of the electoral college votes were opened by both houses of Congress, there was a tie vote for President between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. That threw the election of President into the House of Representatives where Thomas Jefferson was elected the third president by a one vote margin.
• In 1824, none of the four Presidential candidates received an electoral majority. The election was again thrown into the House of Representatives, where John Quincy Adams defeated front runner Andrew Jackson by one vote to become the nation’s 6th president.
• In 1844 in the backwoods area of Switzerland County, Indiana on election day, a farmer named Freeman Clark lay seriously ill in bed. He begged his sons to carry him to the county seat so he could vote for David Kelso to become a state senator. David Kelso had defended old Freeman Clark on a murder charge and obtained his acquittal. The old farmer Freeman Clark got to vote for Kelso but Clark died on his way back home. Kelso won the election by one vote. Both Freeman Clark and David Kelso were long-time Andrew Jackson supporters.
• In 1845, Texas was admitted to the union as a state by one vote.
• In 1846, a one vote margin in the U.S. Senate approved President Polk’s request for a Declaration of War against Mexico.
• In 1850, California was admitted to the union by a margin of one vote.
• In 1859, Oregon was admitted to the union by a margin of one vote.
• The Alaska Purchase of 1867 was ratified by just one vote — paving the way for the eventual annexation of America’s largest state in 1958.
• In 1868, one vote in the U.S. Senate saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment.
• In 1875, a one vote margin changed France from a monarchy to a republic.
• In 1876, no presidential contender received a majority of electoral votes so the determination of the country’s president was again thrown into the U.S. House of Representatives. By a one vote margin, Rutherford B. Hayes became the new U.S. president. When Tilden’s party protested the tabulation and demanded a recount, Congress established a 15-member electoral commission to again count the electoral votes and declare the result. By an eight to seven margin — again, one vote — the commission affirmed the count and gave the election and presidency to Hayes.
• In 1889, by a one vote margin, Washington was admitted to statehood with the union.
• In 1890, by a one vote margin, Idaho became a state.
• In 1916, if presidential hopeful Charles E. Hughes had received one additional vote in each of California’s precincts, he would have defeated President Woodrow Wilson’s re-election bid.
• On November 8, 1923, members of the then recently-formed revolutionary political party met to elect a leader in a Munich, Germany beer hall. By a majority of one vote, they chose an ex-soldier named Adolph Hitler to become the NAZI Party leader.
• In 1940, the vote taken by the French parliament to maintain its status as a republic failed by a margin of one vote.
• In 1941, the Selective Service Act (the draft) was saved by a one vote margin — just weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked.
• In the 1960 presidential election, an additional one vote per precinct in Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, and Texas may have altered the course of America’s modern history by denying John F. Kennedy the presidency and placing Richard Nixon in the White House 8 years earlier.

If you thought your one vote wouldn’t make a difference. Think again.

Original source (and many more examples).