I enjoy listening to Lycoming County Director of Voter Services, Forrest Lehman, every time he speaks in public. He has a passion for his office, and it is obvious that those who work for him and with him think very highly of their director.
When Lehman speaks in public, mostly at the Lycoming County Commissioners Meetings, he not only presents his information in layman’s terms (which many officials forget and use acronyms that are Greek to the rest of us) but also never wastes words. He gets to the point and makes a point. But above all, Forrest Lehman emphasizes that EVERY election is important. Yes, the four-year cycle of the presidential election is the Mother Ship of Elections, but even the election on Tuesday, May 20th, Municipal Primary deserves our attention and participation.
Always remember that the Lycoming County government website, lyco.org, is the one-stop shopping place when it comes to information that is needed about any and all activities relating to county government. This is especially true with voting. On lyco.org/vote, there is information for every single polling place. Much of the ballot is for local positions, but other important issues are also going on.
But first off, you need to know where you need to go to vote. For the past year, some polling sites had to be changed because of accessibility issues, and then the Voter Services Office gets frantic phone calls, “Help me! They moved my voting site! Where do I go to vote?” You can find it easily and quickly on lyco.org/vote under “Polling Place List.”
A serious voter should not wait until they walk into the polling site to look at the ballot. On the lyco.org/vote site, every single borough, township, and city of Williamsport have sample ballots right underneath the “Polling Place List.” It is also easy to find sample ballots as they can be found under “Sample Ballots.”
This municipal primary is important because in the 51 boroughs and townships, there are primary elections for mayors, local supervisors, council members, auditors, and tax collectors running for office, and in the City of Williamsport there are two council members, one democrat and one republican, whose term will expire at the end of this year. Cascade Township, Gamble Township, Mifflin Township, and Porter Township all have the same local referendum: “Do you favor the issuance of licenses to conduct small games of chance in the Township of (name of their township)?”
I honestly cannot understand why less than half the citizens take the time to vote. It can even be done by mail, for crying out loud. I often hear the excuse that one vote does not make a difference.
I strongly disagree. Do not diminish the power of a single vote. In a book about Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston entitled Magnificent Destiny by Paul Wellman, there is a story from 1842.
An elderly Indiana farmer named Freeman Clark was literally willing to die to be able to vote. He begged his sons to carry him over a mountain road to the county seat so he could vote for a lawyer named David Kelso, who had defended him on a murder charge. The strain caused the man to die shortly after he made that journey, but Kelso did win. He won by one vote, Clark’s vote.
David Kelso was elected to the Indiana State Senate, and one of the first actions he faced was the Senate’s selection for a United States senator for their state. (Note: the 17th Amendment for popular votes for the US Senate would not take place until 1913.) The state senators could not agree on a candidate until Kelso proposed a former Indiana State Senator Edward A. Hannigan. Hannigan was elected by one vote, Kelso’s vote.
In Washington, DC, the first big issue that US Senator Hannigan faced was the annexation of Texas into the United States. It had been going back and forth for over ten years due to political divisions over slavery. It needed a two-thirds majority to pass, and it finally did —by one vote — Hannigan’s vote.
The history of our country has many statesmen, soldiers, inventors, explorers, and other heroes who helped form this nation. But there are many, many others who do not get the fame and glory — they just did the right thing, one single vote three times over changed the history of our country.
My hat goes off to Freeman Clark, an old Indiana farmer almost on his deathbed, who felt obligated to vote. That’s a true American.
