Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Obama Wins Electoral Vote


The electoral votes are in ….

Obama will be our President 
for four more years. 


It was a long night before the victor could be called.
Obama supporters drank beers celebrating 
four more years....
while Romney supporters cried tears
over four more years.

But whether you were …
drinking beer or crying in your beer…
"The Donald American People" have spoken.


I find it interesting that Americans 
still don't vote directly for their President.  
Instead, each state has an assigned number of "electors" who vote next month.
Then on January 6 their votes are tallied.  
I'd l ike to meet these "electors."



In most states the faceless "electors" 
are required to vote for the candidate 
who won the popular vote in their state…
but not so fast…
not every state follows that law….
sometimes the "faceless"  are "faithless."  


Anywhooooo……..


I remember learning about the Electoral College in high school and I had a lot of questions.  

(What SAT score do you need to get in?
Was the Electoral College a party school?)


When I turned 18 and could vote...
the process of the Electoral College really hit home.  

I never liked that my vote was "bundled" up 
in a block with everyone else's.
So if I lived in a true blue state (history of voting Democrat) 
and voted Republican..  
my red vote would turn blue.
My state through it's electoral votes would vote Democrat.
(Purple would be a nice compromise.)

Of course, the electoral voting process is much more complicated 
than I want to make it…
but it is interesting that
we use a system formulated in the 1700's.  
A time when we communicated via 
Pony Express…

when you had to hope the messenger wasn't 
thrown off his horse, 
killed by a Indian, 
or saddled up too long at the Saloon.


But before we can trust the "Popular Vote",
the entire voting process need to be smoothed out...
the kinks ironed out,
the long lines shortened, 
"chads" from hanging.

Until then...
we'll probably have to stick with the Electoral College
especially 
if a popular vote came down to less than 5,000 votes
and there were still a bunch of "problem states" out there.


At that point, 
Electoral College 


still sounds better than 

Animal House.


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