Your vote counts, except when it doesn't

Voting is a right and a privilege, according to the U.S. Constitution, and it is a fundamental part of a democracy.

I am a big believer in the responsibility of voting, whether the election of concern is our country's presidential election or local county office. When you don't participate in decisions of leadership in a democracy, you are saying "my opinion doesn't matter."

I'll be the first to say that some opinions are ill-informed or fly in the face of both science and reason. It may be hard to understand why a person has certain opinions, but it does help to know that person's perspective. Plus, I think it's probably true that every person has at least one opinion solely based on his or her own feelings with little justifiable basis.

For example, I'm not a particular fan of the Kevin Kostner movie "Dances with Wolves." I've never quite figured out why. I love Westerns, and Kevin Kostner is a wonderful actor. In fact, one of my favorite movies is another Kostner-led film, "Tin Cup." Kostner, who also directed "Dances with Wolves," took great care in historical accuracy, filming a good deal of dialogue in the Lakota language.

I've watched "Dances with Wolves" a grand total of one time. I yawned my way through it, and truly don't care whether I see it again. I should note that it went on to receive 12 Academy Award nominations and won Best Picture, Best Director and five other Oscars.

I didn't think much of it, in fact, until many years ago, probably shortly after the film was released, when Gary Larson lampooned the few of us who don't care for the movie in his "The Far Side" cartoon with the caption "At the international meeting of the Dances with Wolves Society" showing three people in attendance.

In the case of opinions translating to votes, though, I'm mostly a believer in the idea that a person's vote matters.

Except it doesn't, always. At least not in Illinois.

I was outside the Saline County Courthouse the last half-hour of voting on Election Day. Saline County Clerk workers were helping people who wanted to vote at the courthouse's election office. They were checking registrations and people were lined up, standing at least six feet apart and wearing masks. The closing hour of 7 p.m. came and went, with people who got to the courthouse ahead of the deadline still waiting their turn.

At 7:11 p.m., I received a news notification that Illinois had been called in favor of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. I was stunned. I wasn't surprised that Biden carried Illinois. I was shocked that while some of the people of Saline County were waiting to vote, and before tabulation of votes could even begin, the race in our state had been called. I later learned that Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin had won reelection, with that race having been called three minutes after the polls closed.

I'm not implying that any voter fraud was afoot. Rather, I was surprised that voting results from the northern part of the state were tallied quick enough and were voluminous enough that any votes in the southern part of the state would matter at the presidential or Senate level.

County-level votes did make a difference here, in that the majority of votes favored Republican candidates and all seven seats on the county board were awarded to Republicans.

However, I think it's important to note that in a part of the state where many feel that our voice isn't heard, this General Election only reaffirmed that idea.

Regardless of party, our votes in southern Illinois don't seem to make much of an impact beyond our region.