The votes are in

The votes have been cast and the ballots have been counted. Eddy County Auditor Patty Williams and this season’s poll workers have another election year behind them, and I have become a little more informed about the voting process.

As I sat preparing this article on Election night, I was full of anticipation and excitement. Real-time data makes it possible for us to witness the results unfold on the screen.

As my dad and I watched the results come in, we discussed the electoral college as well as how states can easily flip from one party to the other. I learned a little bit about geography as well as political science. I even gained knowledge about the Republican and Democratic parties and those third-party candidates.

We turned in at 10 p.m., because it was apparent that the presidential results would still take time. Before calling it a night, we took a moment to check the local results and saw that they were all in.

In Eddy County, 1,270 voters cast ballots in this year’s election, which accounts for 71% of the county’s 1,768 eligible voters.

Local results offered few surprises as Glenda Collier was re-elected to the county commissioner with 1,070 votes, or 95.96%. This is the third term she will serve. Mike Schaefer was elected as Soil Conservation District Supervisor, earning 71 of the 195 write-in votes submitted. Mike Tweed earned 1,085 votes, or 99.45% of the vote, and will serve another term as county director of the Garrison Diversion Conservancy District The official Eddy County results will be published next week.

In terms of statewide elections, it was interesting to see how Eddy County voted. Governor Doug Burgum and Lt. Governor Brent Sanford will see a second term in office. In Eddy County 67.52% of voters supported Burgum. Democratic candidate Shelly Lenz took 24.56% of the votes. The remaining percentages went to the libertarian candidate DuWayne Hendrickson as well as 62 write-in votes. Statewide Burgum and Sanford got nearly two-thirds of the votes.

The two statewide measures on the ballot were soundly defeated by North Dakota voters. Statewide 72.54% of voters said no to Measure 1, relating to the state board of higher education. A total of 61.62% of North Dakotans voted against Measure 2, relating to initiated constitutional amendments. Eddy County voters also overwhelmingly opposed both measures, with 77.4% against Measure 1 and 66.53% against Measure 2.  

To be honest, I rather like the idea of write-in votes. After all, that is closer to the Athenian origins of democracy. During the sixth century BC in the Greek city of Athens, people began using the voting process to make decisions regarding leadership.

Their system wasn’t quite the same as ours. When it came time to choose a ruler, the names of the candidates were placed in a hat and selected that way. Also, Athenians had a safeguard against political corruption, where they could simply vote someone out. I wonder what an Athenian would say about our system.

One thing I found particularly difficult to understand about U.S. elections is the idea of the Electoral College. States are assigned a number of electoral votes based on the population. For example, North Dakota has three electoral votes while California has 55. The president who wins the election is the one who reaches 270 votes.

As of noon on Wednesday, we still don’t know who might be our next president, but it is close as Joe Biden has 238 electoral votes and Donald Trump 213 electoral votes. It makes me a little uneasy because I don’t know how long I can go hearing my parents reminisce about the great election recount that took place after the 2000 election!