Why My Son Won't Vote For President - His Vote Really DOESN'T Count

John McCain said tonight that "The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly." 10% difference (roughly) is NOT America speaking clearly.

If you look at the Electoral College votes, yes. As of 10:13PM Pacific Time with only 3/4 of the country reporting, Obama has 338 votes, McCain 156 and 270 are needed to win. That sounds like a major win.

But... the popular vote is 54,055,517 to 49,628,933. A difference of only 4,426,584 which is close to the population of Los Angeles.

The difference between the Electoral College results and the popular vote is why my 28 year old son and many others will not vote for a Presidential candidate. This difference makes a little news every four years, then is totally forgotten until the next time.

I remember when Bill Clinton was "elected". He said it was a clear message from America. Yes... while he won the Electoral votes, 49% of American said that they didn't want him as President. Just as 48% tonight have said they don't want Obama in the White House. In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote... but lost because the Electoral vote.

The Electoral College system was instituted to be "fair" and to protect the rights of the less populous states. Let's see how that works out.

California has 55 Electoral votes, Nevada 5. (Electors are granted based on the number of Senators and Representatives a state has, which means that the more population a state has, the more Electors.)

Say only California and Nevada are being looked at this election. And say that only 1 million people from each state vote. Say that the one million Californians vote for Obama and the one million Nevadans vote for McCain.

The result would be 1,000,000 vs 1,000,000 or a dead tie. Except for that little Electoral College thing. The REAL results are 55 to 5. The popular winner in a state gets all the electoral votes the state has assigned to it.

Even though the voters were completely split 50-50 in these pretend results, the final vote is skewed 10-1 in favor of the larger state because it has more people (who didn't vote at all.)

This didn't protect the rights of Nevada (the smaller state) at all. If anything, it makes our votes worth less than Californians.

Now, here's the part that no one seems to understand. We did NOT elect Obama President tonight.

We elected "Electors" who will vote on December 15th for the President and the Vice-President.

Currently, Obama has 338 Electors slated to vote for him and McCain has 156. The Electors pledge to vote for whomever won their state, but there is no technical rule that says that they HAVE to vote that way.

The Electors could, in theory, elect ANYONE President, even if they didn't run for the office. The only thing that would matter is that the person they elect is qualified under the constitution.

So... even after the popular vote is pretty much split between McCain and Obama, and they are pledged to actually vote in such a way that Obama will win... the Electors could on December 15, elect say Tom Hanks as President and Rosie O'Donnell as Vice-President. This sort of happened eight years ago when one elector abstained from voting.

This disconnection between the popular vote, the Electoral vote and what COULD happen is why my son and many others refuse to vote for the office of President.

Technorati Tags:
Elections, Government, Politics

The Revolution That Didn't Happen

We had a rare opportunity this year... Congress is the only branch of government that can regulate, tax, make laws and spend money. Which means that the national debt, war, financial collapse and most of the other ills of this nation are a direct result of the actions or inactions of our Congress. The fact that 87.8% of Congressional seats were up for election meant that the American people had a chance to do something besides complain. With Congressional approval ratings amongst the lowest they've ever been, one would think that there would have been a clean sweep with new blood brought in to fix things.

Most of the past 40 years have been spent spiraling this country into the land of corporate greed and financial mismanagement. Most of the past 40 years have been with the Democrats in control of Congress. Most of the past 100 years have been spent cycling between Republicans and Democrats in power. Republicans and Democrats alike are interested in two things: Feathering their nests and kow-towing to the lobbyists who finance their campaigns. Do you really believe that someone elected to Congress with a salary of about $169,000 a year got even more wealthy from that income?

So with the Purple Party (Republicans and Democrats, red and blue) having fun at our expense for all these years and the public crying for change, you'd THINK that the American public would replace those Purples with someone else for a change. Lots of independents and Libertarians ran for office. Who knows if they'd have been better than the two parties that got us into this mess? They certainly couldn't have done any worse.

So with the chance to replace our government, without a single shot being fired, what happened?

Nothing

The outraged American voters came out en masse and set voting records, to vote the same parties back into office and into power. Obama may have won the White House and the Dems may have won control of both the House and the Senate, but the American voters are the losers.

Just so you know, as if you care... I voted and I didn't vote for a single Democrat or Republican.

It'll be years before we get an opportunity of this scale again. Assuming that Americans get their collective heads out of their collective asses, I just hope that there is something left to save.

Technorati Tags:
Congress, Elections, Government

If You Like How Things are Going... DO NOT VOTE!!!

We need your vote. We are in a pretty rare situation here in the U.S. today. We are electing a new president (and vice president), 1/3 of our Senators and ALL of the House of Representatives. That's 87% of our Federal elected government that can be changed today!

Despite the news reports of perhaps near record voter turnout, many of you have decided that since it makes no difference if it is McCain or Obama that gets elected as our next president, that you aren't going to bother to vote today.

Even if you don't care who wins; even if you think XXX is a shoe in; you NEED to vote today.

Here's my reasoning:

1. In my opinion, if you don't vote, then you have no right to complain about how things are going. Voting is one of the most important ways of making you voice heard.

2. If you don't care for either John McCain or Barack Obama, you still have EIGHT other candidates from which to choose! A "3rd party" candidate getting a considerable number of votes will not only make news, but it MIGHT make traditional politicians take notice. While the Democrat and Republican candidates are automatically on the ballot in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, 3rd parties have to apply, lobby and petition every year to be on the ballot. The more votes they get, the more media notice, and perhaps we can get this changed. Finally, some states even have a "None of these Candidates" entry on the ballot. I'd love to see that "person" win an election.

If you vote for a 3rd party candidate, you are not throwing your vote away. Granted, one of them winning this election probably has the same odds as winning the Powerball lottery three weeks in a row, but every bit helps. And every vote for a 3rd Party is a vote against the mess we are in today.

So if you really like it the way things are in this country, stay home, don't vote and watch someone else choose our new government for you. If/When things get even worse, I don't want to hear your gripes as you did nothing to try to stop it.

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Barack Obama, Bob Barr, Congress, Democrat, Elections, Government, John McCain, Libertarian, Politics, Ralph Nader, Republican, Sarah Palin