The Election & YOUR Vote........

In a perfect world, every vote would be equal, and politicians would be forced to address the concerns of every voter. There would be no red states, no blue states, and no battleground states. But, the sad fact is that we don’t live in a perfect world and in all likelihood your vote won’t matter. The reason for this is that during this “historic” election will be decided by voters in only six or so closely divided “battleground states.”

Now, I am sure that too many of you, that will come as a complete shock. But that is the sad state of election affairs in this day and age. The reason why the majority of states do not matter is because, with the exception of a few, there is what can be called “winner take all” rule.

In a nutshell, this rule awards all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes. Therefore, candidates have no reason to poll, visit or pay any attention to the concerns of those states where they are clearly ahead or hopelessly lost. Michigan is a prime example. According to the McCain camp “The campaign must decide where it can best utilize its limited resources with the goal of winning nationally.”

Of course, voters in 36 of the 50 states never mattered, even before the 2008 presidential election began. The New York Times reported that both major political parties were in agreement that there would be at most 14 battleground states in 2008.

It’s important to know that this "winner take all" rule is not in the U.S. Constitution, but simply state law. Now, the easiest way to fix our broken system is to elect the president by a national popular vote. Under a national popular vote, every person’s vote, in every state, would be equally important, regardless of political party. But to many in the political establishment that would mean actually working for all the people, not just the battleground voters and that is not likely to happen without voters demanding it.

That’s why I think it is so important that voters support the National Popular Vote bill which would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and the District of Columbia). It’s time to reform the current system and do what the general public has long supported, electing the president by a national popular vote.