Tag: voting rules

I’ve been avoiding FB for quite some time now. I’ve finally relented and slowly eased back into it. It was quite refreshing to avoid the doom and gloom news as well as the rampant nonsense. I’m seriously gonna try to limit my presence there from now on. It just isn’t healthy. 

Being away has certainly helped me avoid being baited into ridiculous arguments with folks who often have no idea what they are ranting about. Case and point,  my buddy Rick was having a bad day and ranted about being truly hurt by any of his’friends’ who voted for Trump. The thread didn’t devolve completely but one fellow felt the need to tell us all how duped we are for thinking our votes matter. When I offered that he was part of the problem, he really went off. He never realized his rant pretty much proved my point. 

Later, my sense of fairness got the better of me and I started thinking about it. I asked around in a few different forums and was disappointed. lol  It seems a lot of people don’t understand basic civics in relation to voting. So here it is a nut-shell. I’m not going into every detail but your vote does matter. It matters a great deal; however, you also need to understand how our constitution works. Our country was formed thru a collection of states joining together to create a cohesive republic. ^[1]Look a real footnote! Republic, noun: a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch

Our founding fathers came up with the electoral college to even out the power of individual states to sway an election. There is some argument about also being designed to avoid letting crazy people like Trump get elected but I can’t say for sure in that regard. But the point of the electoral college is simple. Thru local votes of individuals an electorate is expected to vote for said candidate. This is done state by state based on their allotment of electoral votes. Simply put, the closer to your local government you vote, the more power your individual vote carries. On a local or state level our votes are pretty much equal. There are some exceptions in a few states but overall this is true. 

As for the presidency, our votes were never designed to be equal across state lines. While you may feel your vote might count less than someone else’s, when you look at how states actually vote for the president thru the electoral college it makes perfect sense. And while there might be an argument on whether we need a constitution amendment to shift our focus away from states rights to the individual, that is a different conversation. Your vote was never designed to be equal to everyone else’s in the country. I know, I know, you’re shocked. hehehe  If it were the design, the most populous states would constantly decide elections. Smaller, less dense states would be left out in the cold. This is how our constitutional system was setup. 

The idea that your vote doesn’t count is part of why we are in the quandry we are in now. Population explosion, indifference, and a variety of social-economic influences are pushing people away from being involved with their government at any level. If we truly want to right our ship so to speak, we need to overcome this. We need to be involved. It may not seem like it’s that important but Turmp’s win is a shining example to the contrary.