The standard Get out and Vote Blog

A lot of people today are telling us to get out and vote. I'm not going to disagree. There are many people in the world who can't vote for their leaders. Or even have the illusion that they are voting for their leaders (something I believe with the Electoral College...we're dangerously close to)...however it's important to vote.

Yes...the system is broken. The electoral college was created at a time when the country didn't have anything close to fast communication. It took literally weeks to get a letter across state lines. Messages travelled by 1 horse power. So the Electoral College was created to give local voice to national elections. The local vote would happen...then the college would meet and then decide on the president.

Now we live in an age where media is overrunning our lives. If a public figure has a sniffle at 2:05 PM...by 2:30 it's on the news as a possible life-threatening illness. The fact is...by the time we wake up tomorrow we'll know how the country voted and what's going to possibly happen (barring the law suits of voter tampering SURE to follow any result tonight).

So I guess I wonder...Why the electoral college exists? Some say it's to encourage the candidates to stump in lower populated states. I get that. It makes sense. If a candidate can win MANY smaller states he can overwhelm the big 3 (California, Texas and NY). However if that's the case...my idea would be a fair compromise. The electors are decided by Representatives in the House. WHY then...do they not go to the Senate? If NY and California have 2...but so does Hawaii, or Rhode Island...then that will encourage candidates to go after all the states. Is it fair? No. Obviously a NY vote should carry more weight than Rhode Island...but if the true reason for the Electors was fairness...this would fix the problem.

No...the truth is the Electoral College now exists for one reason. To confuse and confound America. Most Americans know the Electoral College as something they learned about in Civics in High School...it's a nebulous mist of how Presidents are picked. Fact is...this allows for those in power to retain it. Imagine if you will...that Ross Perot hadn't dropped out of the race in 92. Imagine he had WON the popular vote...would they allow him to serve? HECK NO! They would have said NY and Cali wouldn't let it. In 2000...Gore DID win the popular vote...and while I don't think he could have done a better job than George W. Bush during his first term. Especially during 9/11....fact is he probably SHOULD have won the election.

Now here we are and there are 5 scenarios where we could have an elector tie. Imagine that...a TIE?!?!! The fact is...I think that we need to move to Popular Voting again. Abolish the College. Like the BCS...we should scrap it and go to a playoff system.

We won't though...because like I said...it's like asking those who got in power by a broken system to fix it. It won't happen until someone can come up with a new system as nebulous and obscure as the Electoral College is...to allow the possibility of those in power being able to retain it in spite of the popular opinion.

Sorry for the bleek nature of this post...but I'm just saddened to see the dream we were built on die slowly.

That being said...YOU NEED TO VOTE TODAY!!!! GO DO IT NOW!

Thanks for reading;

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