Virginia has been the scene of excruciatingly close races in the past few years.

In 2010 in the 11th District, Democrat Gerry Connolly beat Republican Keith Fimian by 981 votes out of 227,000 cast (0.43%).

In 2013 in the attorney general race, Democrat Mark Herring beat Republican Mark Obenshain by 907 votes out of 2.2 million cast (0.04%). This happened alongside the gubernatorial race where Democrat Terry McAuliffe beat Republican Ken Cuccinelli by 2.52%.

In 2014 in the 6th Senate District, Democrat Lynwood Lewis beat Republican Wayne Coleman by 9 votes out of 20,000 cast (0.04%).

In 2014 in the U.S. Senate race, Democrat Mark Warner beat Republican Ed Gillespie by 18,000 votes out of 2.2 million cast (0.81%).

And today in the 34th House District, Democrat Kathleen Murphy beat Republican Craig Parisot by 324 votes out of 12,000 cast (2.60%).

Notice a pattern? The Democrats won all these elections. Republicans have to step up and turn out to vote to start coming out on the right side of these close elections. Virginia is the definition of a swing state. In the case of the 2013 attorney general race, the election could have been swung by just one more Republican vote in each precinct. In the case of the 2014 state Senate race, the election could have been swung by one family turning out to vote Republican. In the case of today’s race, the election could have been swung by 325 Republicans stopping by their polling place and taking five minutes to vote.

It’s actually true: every vote counts.