For the second time in 13 years - the length of time I've been eligible to vote - my vote has counted towards electing the official I felt most directly shared my views. I'm talking about the Mayoral race in Jacksonville, FL, which today ended in Alvin Brown accepting the Mayor-elect title and becoming the first Democrat to hold office in almost two decades.
While most of my fellow Jacksonvillians - Jacksonvillites? Jacksonvillers? - don't realize this, Democrats have long dominated the Mayoral position in this fine city. In fact, before the current three-run Republican streak, Democrats held the Mayoral position since 1888, well over 100 years! More than that, they have by and far held the Mayoral position many more times than Republicans have.
But that's not the point of this diary.
Neither is the fact that while some call this one of the most conservative major cities in America, locally it's better known as one of the more liberal cities of the South. Seriously!
What this diary is about is that I am proud to think of myself as one of those 97,271 votes cast for Alvin Brown. More importantly, I feel like I may even be one of the 1648 votes that made the difference.
This marks only the second time in 13 years of voting (the previous time for our - my! - President) that my vote has counted towards the winner. And while I accept that you can't always vote and get your way, it's really frustrating to vote for nearly a decade before you feel like your vote counts (for the Pres), and then another three years before it counts again (Alvin Brown). But I tell ya, it's worth it.
I got to eat lunch today with two coworkers, and instead of listening to them, I was turning my head all the way around, looking up and watching the closed captioning trying to see everything Mayor-elect Brown had to say.
This diary isn't meant to be political, or historical, or deep. Simply, it's meant to convey my happiness. As a young voter, it's been a long time coming to see my votes counted - at least towards a winner - but I'm glad I kept at it.