I won my 2022 N.J. election. I was sworn in. Then it was all taken away.

Days after election night in 2022, after waiting to let all the votes be counted, I learned that I won a school board race in Ocean Township, N.J., by 20 votes, a difficult feat in a field of six candidates running for three seats. Almost two months later, I had the honor of being sworn into my town’s Board of Education before my friends and family. It was a personal and professional dream come true. Victory was sweet.

After that, I got a call that no one could expect. There was a voting machine mishap in two election districts where human error allowed some votes to be counted twice; my election was now in doubt.

A hand recount showed I lost by four votes — 3,404 to 3,408 votes for the incumbent. I could have legally challenged the results — I was well within my rights to do so — but I have remained steadfast in my belief that this issue is bigger than just my candidacy or my local school board race.

In the time since I received that phone call, I’ve had many questions on how this happened, some of which were answered, and some are still outstanding.

Since certain political actors have sowed doubt in our democratic system for their own benefit, a portion of our country’s electorate questions whether they can trust the outcome of elections. Even though I lost my election, I am glad that the mistake was discovered.

That may sound strange, but it’s true. I didn’t want to hold office if I didn’t have the majority of the votes. Our democracy is worth more than my personal ambitions.

That said, the experience was chaotic and awful. In the future, there needs to be a framework for when there is a vote-counting error such as the one I have lived through. I still have questions about how this error occurred, so there need to be clear communications from election officials and those who run elections on what happened and what steps will be taken to make sure that a similar error doesn’t happen again. A candidate’s ability to be able to trust the results is important, but the trust of the general electorate is far more important. Election workers are humans, and as such errors will happen. Transparency is key to ensuring that public trust can be regained.

My loss was a tough pill to swallow. However, my far greater concern is to ensure we all do everything in our power to make our democracy as transparent and open as it possibly could be. While our election system is far from perfect, it is still robust. With a presidential election next year, our democratic systems must hold; in my case, it showed that they did exactly that.

Democracy is a team sport. There isn’t room for spectators. Apathy is how democracies are imperiled. I worked so hard to get on my town’s school board, where I felt I could make a difference in my community. I could have never imagined being thrust into the national spotlight and having Kari Lake give me a shout-out. Even though accepting the election results meant losing my seat on the school board that I’d wanted so badly, I knew it was important to do so. I hope my example shows voters the importance of accepting election results.

My message to fellow candidates — no matter the office they are seeking — is to not villainize the system. The general public would do well to follow this advice, too. We must push for answers, yes, but also go wherever the truth is. In doing so, regardless of which political candidate wins a particular race, we keep our democracy a vibrant one. That is far more important than which candidate wins a particular election.

Steve Clayton served on the Ocean Township school board in New Jersey from 2016 to 2018 and this year. @steveclaytonnj