Two-Vote Victory: Tom Fick No Stranger To Close Elections

Tom Fick is getting used to close elections. This time, however, it was in his favor. 

Fick first ran for Boone County Commissioner eight years ago because he thought there was a need for some change.
 
He ran against Jerry Tisthammer, who Fick said was the incumbent with a very well-known family name. Fick lost that election by four votes.
 
After a while of considering what he would do next, he decided to run a second time and lost again due to changes in the precincts.

Last week's primary election was Fick's third try, and it again yielded a close election. He won by a mere two votes.
 
“Winning by two votes is just as good as winning by 100,” Fick said.

The canvasing board met last week to verify the ballots. There was an official recount Wednesday where the results were the same with Fick winning by two votes.
 
Fick will run unopposed in November. Until he takes office in January, he will remain chairman of city planning and run his crop consulting business. 

At 10 p.m. the night of the election, Fick and his wife looked at the computer screen confused. At first they thought maybe he lost, but then they saw that he won by two votes.
 
“I knew that they would want to check again and run it through the machine again,” Fick said. “I had people say they didn’t vote because they thought I would win by a bigger margin. This just goes to show you that one vote really does count.”
 
Fick thanked everyone who did vote because it did make a difference and he believes that this can be a perfect example of just how important just one vote is.
 
Fick expected a close race, but he also expected more than the 42.91 percent voter turnout. 
 
“You find out that many people didn’t think they had a reason to go,” Fick said. “I think that maybe in the Republican Primary, if things hadn’t been locked down with Trump, maybe there would have been more.”
 
Fick said he would have liked to see over 50 percent voter turnout, but for most elections, that number is hard to reach.

Fick, who is an agronomist, said among his top priorities as a commissioner will be to have Boone County be recognized by the Departent of Agriculture as a Nebraska Livestock Friendly County. 

“It is very important," he said. "We need to be livestock friendly; we should have been for a long time.”