In US History classes, the point that one vote CAN make a difference was supported by arguments like (a) English was voted to be the USA’s official language by one vote over German. And, (b) they claimed Hitler came to power by one vote.
Did they lie to us about (a) and/or (b)? If (a) is true, then why is it an issue today? And last…what were you taught about these two events?
A good reference site for questions like this one is the website www.snopes.com. In fact, they answer your very questions here:
I believe your teachers were talking about a vote in Congress over what the official (working) language of Congress itself would be; not what the official language of the nation as a whole should be.
The reason it’s an issue is because a fair number of immigrants (especially illegal immigrants) have a language other than English as their language and that upsets a lot of Anglophones.
Snopes on multiple false “one vote” claims.
Snopes on the explicit (and false) “one vote” kept us from speaking German.
I was never taught any of these claims as true, (but then some of them may have (not) occurred after I left school).
Thanks for the clarification! This has been bugging me a long time, but i kept forgetting to ask the best source in fron tof my very own face! Why, the SD of course!
(Sheesh! It’s a good thing the initials of this board isn’t… “The BS” 
)
No need to go all the way to snopes - Cecil himself has answered this:
Did Hebrew almost become the official U.S. language?
The question was about Hebrew, but the answer is mosly about the German urban legend.
Although, if the truth be told, Hitler DID come to power by one vote. He was appointed by Hindenburg. Had Hindenburg chosen otherwise, Der Fuhrer would not have been in power at the time that he was.
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As others have pointed out, many of those famous “one vote” claims were completely bogus. Many others were technically true, but don’t prove the point the author was trying to make*.
But I was never taught ANY of those “facts” in school, and never saw any of them in real history textbooks. Rather, I saw it dozens of times in Dear Abby & Ann Landers columns, many more times in othger syndicated columns. I heard it from TV and radio commentators, who probably got it from Dear Abby or Ann Landers. I’ve seen it on the Internet loads of times. Heck, right before Election Day, that old list is always republished all over the place by civic-minded folks who want to encourage everyone to vote.
But I don’t know of any serious history text that tried to sell these stories as true.
Even the most cynical non-voter would surely say, “Of COURSE my one vote could be vitally important if I were a Senator or Member of Parliament or Supreme Court Justice. But since I’m just one, ordinary, average schmoe, my voye doesn’t mean squat. Stories about Edmund Ross (whose one vote determined whether Andrew Johnson would be removed from the PResidency) don’t prove otherwise.”
One man CAN make a difference … assuming he has a talking car.
I seem to recall reading in a voter’s information booklet that some years ago, a popular vote in Montana (I believe it was for a state legislator, or something of about that level) was actually tied, and therefore decided by a flip of a coin. I’ll see if I can dig up a reference.
Of course, even if true, this is of nowhere near national impact. Montana’s a very low population state, and only a small proportion of people vote for state legislators, so we’re talking one vote out of perhaps a few thousand, not one out of millions or tens of millions.
In a local election in Denver, the populace voted to install air conditioning in the City and County Building by one vote. So if I hadn’t voted it would have won by two votes.
BFD.