This whole decade’s been like a bad movie sequel that completely imitates the original. Invading Iraq? Check. Mount St. Helens exploding? Check. And now…well, the networks are calling different states and this and that and nobody’s got the balls to call the whole damn race yet, but…a lot of projections place the result at 269-269. Another freakin’ tie. (You’d think they’d be smart enough to have an ODD number of electoral votes, don’tcha?? What’s up with that shit?)
And no matter what happens, it will all hinge on Ohio. You just know that ambulance chaser Edwards is gonna challenge the result. Jesus Christ, it’s Florida all over again. I’m as anti-Bush as anyone, but even I know when it’s time to give it up and go home.
Remember when the election was over before the West Coast polls even closed? Man I miss those days.
Oh, it ain’t over. Yeah, for all intents and purposes it’s over, and the outcome will be the same no matter what happens. But you know that skeevy weasel of a lawyer will be filing frivolous vote challenges in all the “battleground” states. It won’t be as ugly and drawn-out as 2000, probably no more than a week or so, but it will be just as annoying. And the Dems will burn up all the good will they managed to squeeze out of this campaign.
Ah, well. There’s always Hilary in '08. I’m looking at that as the bright side.
The number of electoral votes was originally equal to the total number of Senators and Representatives. Both gradually as the population grew and new states were admitted. By the early twentieth century, it became evident that the House was going to get too big and unwieldy, and in 1911 the size of the House was fixed at 435 (any new states and population shifts were to be accomodated by reallocating that fixed pie). This guaranteed an odd number of electoral votes (the number of Senators is even, since each state gets two, and the sum of an odd number and an even number is an odd number).
However, when the District of Columbia was granted a vote in presidential elections by the 23rd Amendment, it was given as many electoral votes as it would have if it were a state, but not than the least populous state (which pretty much guaranteed that it would have 3 EV). Adding 3 (an odd number) to the previous odd-number total generated an even-number sum.
Is there anyone else out there who had a faint glimmer of hope that this thread was about clothing and a Birthday party?
No? Um. Okay, then. Nevermind.
