By Charlotte Little
Tuesday night, as voting was almost closed, I found myself at Cibola High School. Volunteers were at other sites or enjoying well-deserved rest after a long day, so I was by myself, waving at voters and cheering them on as they approached their polling place. My team was urging me to wrap it up – it was dark, I was alone, and it was time to head home to get ready to watch the results come in and, hopefully, celebrate with family and friends.
But I stayed. And as I stayed, I thought of all of those Election Day evenings spent in the Pueblos, getting out the vote. We would be urging people who were arriving by foot to hurry in the door, asking people to call their aunties and cousins to make sure they got an opportunity to vote. We knew that every vote counted.
In the last minutes of Election Day, as I stood at Cibola High School, I noticed that arrivals went from a slow drip to a rush of people. I saw, as people hurried in, that many were in uniform: electricians and skilled workers, healthcare workers in scrubs, restaurant workers, too. As they arrived, some stopped to give me, breathlessly, their reasons for showing up so late in the day. “I was just so busy!” or “I just got off of work!” To which I responded, “No problem! You made it!” “Go! Vote!”
And as we have seen so clearly in these last few days: every vote mattered.
All the votes have now been tabulated and our campaign is up by 36 votes. There will be an automatic recount in early December, mandated for all legislative races that have less than a one percent difference. I am incredibly hopeful and confident that we will emerge on top. We will, of course, wait until every vote is counted and confirmed.
We have worked so hard, over so many months, and, regardless of the outcome, we have much to celebrate.
Every. Vote. Counts.