In the summer of 1842, Henry Shoemaker was working as a hired hand on a DeKalb County farm in Indiana. As the day wore on, he realized he’d forgotten to vote.
He promised to vote for Madison Marsh, so he rode 12 miles to the polling place and cast his ballot.
Marsh won by one vote.
The reason history knows this is because when Shoemaker went to vote, there was not a ballot available with all the candidates he wanted to vote for, so he took his knife and cut up individual ballots to make his own.
An inspector threw them out and the election ended in a 360-360 tie. Marsh heard about Shoemaker’s ballot and protested. After several hearings, Shoemaker’s ballot was allowed and the election decided.
But the story doesn’t end there.
The next year, the legislators were electing a senator — that’s how it was done then. After several ballots, Marsh cast the vote that broke a deadlock and put Edward Hannegan into the U.S. Senate.
In 1846, the Senate was deadlocked on whether to go to war with Mexico. Hannegan was absent, and then was tracked down to vote. His vote was in favor of the war.
When Texas was being voted on for statehood, the Senate vote was tied until — you guessed it — Hannegan cast the deciding vote to admit.
Sources:
Indiana Public Media.org
The Greatest Stories Never Told by Rick Beyer
Fantastic! Many thanks.