The Aug. 2 election showed us two things in Barry County, the power of hoofing it through rural parts of the Ozarks, and the power behind a rural precinct ballot. Steve Blankenship, of Jenkins, won the Barry County presiding commissioner race over Chad Johnson and Andrew W. Henbest, both of Cassville.

The race was a nail-biter.

Early on in the returns, Johnson took the lead. The first precincts to report — absentee, Butterfield, Cassville City and Cassville Rural/ Mineral — Johnson raked in 680 votes to Blankenship’s 450 and Henbest’s 411. In the next four precincts, Johnson moved to 1,182, Blankenship to 894 and Henbest to 652.

With half the vote in, Johnson was leading with 43.3 percent to Blankenship’s 32.8 and Henbest’s 23.9.

That was about to change. The next set of returns was what Blankenship had been waiting for. The five precincts included his home precinct of Jenkins, plus Kings Prairie/ Pleasant Ridge, Ozark/Crane Creek, Purdy/ McDowell and Seligman. The only one of those he didn’t win was Purdy/McDowell.

Still, the swing was substantial. With only four precincts remaining, Blankenship jumped to 1,535, pulling ahead of Johnson by a mere 14 votes.

With Henbest falling in third in most precincts, eyes at the courthouse turned to the two front-runners.

The final result saw Blankenship continue to pull ahead, losing Shell Knob by only 13; nearly doubling Johnson in Monett Rural/Capps Creek, 83-45; winning Roaring River by another 10 and closing with a 4-vote win in Golden.

The progression was as Barry County as it gets, with a clear division between city voters and rural voters, most starkly in the northeast corner of the county.

When asked what he thought made the difference, Blankenship was modest, citing his hard work but crediting the other candidates for theirs.

From the community, however, it was clear Blankenship did a lot more hoofing to front doors in rural parts of the county where his counter parts may not have stumped so hard.

The proof is in the numbers. In Jenkins, Kings Prairie/Pleasant Ridge and Ozark/Crane Creek, Blankenship outpaced Johnson 446-135, and Henbest gathered another 109.

Candidates on all levels have a bounty of campaign resources at their grasp. From traditional signs and stickers to text messages and robocalls, it’s not too difficult to reach voters.

As an aside, I don’t suggest texts. I got at least a dozen on Monday and a few on Tuesday from national candidates, and they were exponentially more annoying than informative.

All of the candidates had visible signage across the county, and all made efforts to attend every festival, pancake breakfast, Friday coffee and other opportunities to introduce themselves to big crowds.

What made the difference for Blankenship was none of that — just good old-fashioned door knocking.

I commend him for it, and the result of that action was votes well-earned.

While showing the power of meeting people in their spaces, Blankenship unintentionally, or maybe intentionally, showed how powerful a vote in a county election can be.

At the Ozark/Crane Creek precinct, 266 people voted, representing 20 percent of registered voters in there and 5.2 percent of the total votes cast in the presiding commissioner election.

Any one of those votes could be designated as the one that pushed Blankenship to the win.

Typically, it’s the Seligman, Shell Knob and Monett Rural votes that turn a tide, so this result should put everyone on notice.

No matter how rural, no matter how seemingly small, your vote can have a grand impact, especially on the local level.

Kyle Troutman has served as the editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014. In 2017, he was named William E.

James/Missouri Outstanding Young Journalist for daily newspapers. He may be reached at 417-847-2610 or ktroutman@cherryroad.com.