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Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

As presidential hopefuls take the stage for 2020 debates, it's tough to avoid talk of the importance of voting.

Sure, it takes effort, and you might think that your one vote won't really make all that much of a difference. But get this. In 1971, a teenager

named Stephen Burns nearly decided a Virginia election with his one vote.

It's a crazy story that ends in essentially a coin flip.

In 71, Burns was 18 years old, a newly minted voter.

He was very jazz to be part of the democratic process.

He was so jazzed that he didn't mind that he had to jump through extra hoops to cast his ballot.

At the time, he was attending college in New York, so he needed to vote absentee.

He dutifully went to his registrar's office to fill out his

ballot. Back then, absentees had to be notarized, and his plan was to vote a straight Republican

ticket. But the ballot did not identify General Assembly candidates by party, and he accidentally

voted for two Democrats.

Oh well, no worries.

Burns went through great pains to correct his mistake.

He neatly crossed out the Democrats' names and then added this note,

quote, do not desire to vote for these two.

Seems straightforward, right?

That's what Burns thought too.

Nope.

Election judges ruled that Burns had defaced his ballot with extra markings, so they tossed it out.

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