Think your vote doesn’t matter? Think again.

On a hot summer afternoon in 1842, Henry Shoemaker was working hard as a hired hand on a farm in Indiana when he suddenly remembered that it was Election Day.  He had personally promised his vote to the Democrat running for state representative from his district, Dr. Madison Marsh.

 Others might have chosen to shirk their civic duty at this point, but there was still a few minutes left before the polls closed and Mr. Shoemaker did not want to break his promise.  So, he saddled his horse, rode to the polling place and cast his ballot for Dr. Marsh.  As a result, Dr. Madison Marsh was elected . . . by one vote.

 In that period, state legislators were responsible for electing U. S. Senators.  In January of 1843, newly elected representative Madison Marsh and his fellow Indiana lawmakers convened to elect their state Senator.  Marsh changed his vote on the sixth ballot, electing Edward Hannegan to the United States Senate . . . by one vote.

 Later, in 1846, the U. S. Senate was sharply divided over whether or not to go to war with Mexico.  The vote was deadlocked until the absent Senator Hannegan was called in.  He voted in favor of war with Mexico, tilting the vote in favor of war.  The result of that war included the addition of California to the United States.

 It also appears that Senator Edward Hannegan also cast the deciding vote to give statehood to Texas.  So, if Henry Shoemaker had not have kept his promise and rode to the polls at the last minute to vote, it is possible that Texas might not have become part of the United States.

 Why do we know so much about Henry Shoemaker and his vote?  It was a contested ballot.  The Election of 2000 was not the first time that there had been challenges to ballots cast and how they were cast.  When Shoemaker came to vote, there was not a ticket available that listed all of the candidates that he wanted to vote for.  So he took out his pocket knife and cut out the names from four different tickets in order to cast his ballot.  The inspector at the poll threw out his improvised ticket, causing the election to result in a tie.  After numerous hearings and lengthy testimony, the vote was allowed and Marsh was elected by one vote.

 Of course history doesn’t specifically record whether Mr. Shoemaker himself supported the annexation of Texas and cast the “actual” deciding vote. A Hoosier in the 1840s might have had mixed feelings about adding another southern slave state to the Union. But his one vote evidently did “make a difference”.

 Source:  The Greatest Stories Never Told from The History Channel www.history.com