On November 2nd, more voters came to the polls to vote for President than in any election since 1968. And while the 56,373,514 Americans who voted for Kerry saw their candidate lose to George W. Bush – I know one vote in this election that counted more than any other.

When I met Summer, she had many wonderful qualities. She was smart, fun, beautiful, romantic and well educated. The one thing she was not was political. Not only was she not registered to vote – but she had no knowledge of the political scene and no interest in her government. In fact, I remember when President Bush was giving a live news conference and she called me upset because her favorite show was pre-empted due to the President’s televised event.

As Summer and I grew closer and the election drew nearer, I asked her if she would do me a favor. I asked her if she would not only register to vote, but educate herself with regard to the political process and the upcoming election. I asked her to watch the debates, go to each candidate’s respective websites, learn about what both John Kerry and George W. Bush stood for – and vote not for the candidate of my choice – but for the candidate of her choice.

She not only did what I asked – she exceeded my expectations – and made me very proud of her – and extremely proud to be an American.

I remember when she called me after the first Presidential debate. For a good half hour, we talked about what each candidate had to say about his platform and his opponent’s views. We discussed how each candidate handled the questions they were asked, and how well they rebutted their opponent’s questions. We spoke at length about what direction each candidate wanted to take this country in – and we both had a lot to say about the candidate we decided to vote for.

As I listened to her discuss the election and the reason she chose her particular candidate, I was amazed at the 180-degree turn she took in such a short amount of time. In less than two months, she went from someone who did not care about politics to someone who could discuss politics on the Fox News Channel. She went from a woman who had no interest in the political process to a woman who knew who ran for President and why each candidate had different views. She went from a person who would have let the election pass her by to a person who made sure she went to the voting booth on Election Day. And most importantly – she went from politically-challenged to politically-educated – and I am very happy that she did so.

Now that the election is over, I do not expect that Summer will spend her nights glued to CNN, but even if she never pays attention to politics ever again – I am honored that she exercised her right as an American and pulled the lever on Election Day…

…and made her vote count.