Electoral College
A personal plea to eliminate the electoral college. If you live in a purple state, that is considered to be up for grabs in the national election, you are treated to constant telephone calls from both sides telling you how awful the other side is and oh by the way, if you'd like to throw a few bucks our way that would be great too. A non contested state's residents are spared by and large such fun.
I live in a purple state, Colorado. So the good news is my Presidential vote counts, it counts a lot. Not so much if you live in one of the numerous states that is either very red or very blue. So if you live in say Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma - your presidential vote counts very little, almost not at all, because these are very red states, and the chance of Barack Obama taking one of these states is essentially zero. Same goes for say West coast states or New England which are very blue states, so Mitt Romney's chance of winning in Vermont is also close to zero.
There was undoubtedly a very good reason to have an electoral college when the US was formed, but not now - it basically disenfranchises most of the US citizens in national elections. Chance of this changing? - not very high - amending the Constitution is difficult and a long and tedious process. Still, it would clearly be the right thing to do. It's nice that my presidential vote counts so much, but it's a shame that my daughter's presidential vote (she resides in Utah) is a wasted vote.
I live in a purple state, Colorado. So the good news is my Presidential vote counts, it counts a lot. Not so much if you live in one of the numerous states that is either very red or very blue. So if you live in say Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma - your presidential vote counts very little, almost not at all, because these are very red states, and the chance of Barack Obama taking one of these states is essentially zero. Same goes for say West coast states or New England which are very blue states, so Mitt Romney's chance of winning in Vermont is also close to zero.
There was undoubtedly a very good reason to have an electoral college when the US was formed, but not now - it basically disenfranchises most of the US citizens in national elections. Chance of this changing? - not very high - amending the Constitution is difficult and a long and tedious process. Still, it would clearly be the right thing to do. It's nice that my presidential vote counts so much, but it's a shame that my daughter's presidential vote (she resides in Utah) is a wasted vote.
Agreed, it's time for a change. When voting for the President of the UNITED States of America, one person, one vote.
ReplyDeleteOn a completely different topic, I came across a nice application for tracking your walks, hikes and rides, if you're using an iPhone. It's Mapmyrun. It (not surprisingly) maps your route, and tracks distance, average speed, altitude change and calories burned. Please feel free to delete this post if you don't want it on your blog.
ReplyDeleteI hope all is well with you and your family. Congrats on the wedding extravaganza!
Thanks for the info, and wow you are still looking at this stuff. I try and throw in a political one every now and then to see if I can get a rise out of anyone (it worked). Trust all is well with you.
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