That would require the Kansas electorate to evolve, and … well, write your own Kansas-evolution joke…
I thought the only Liberal in Kansas was the town
Back in 2000 I was running for re-election to the local school board. I ended up losing to a close friend (we were running against each other because of redistricting) by one vote. Every vote really does count. 
Of course there is a big difference between the number of votes in a presidential election and a local school board race-but in both cases the % is way less than 1!
BTW,
on election day I talked to a couple who would have voted for me-they are neighbors. But they were protesting another race that had turned dirty, so they didn’t go vote.
Not voting is a choice and has an effect just as voting does.
Funny the OP should mention Alaska since that is now the most glaring example in this election of a huge difference between polling and votes (but for Senator).
The odds of being the decisive vote in a swing state are so vanishingly small that the difference in voting in a swing state and a safe state is neglible. People vote for the same reason they buy apparel with a sports team’s name on it. People are hard wired to be joiners. Voting and campaigning for a candidate are a way of joining yourself to a team, just not a sports team, a political one. This impulse is just as strong in a safe state as in a swing state.
Because states aren’t “guaranteed.” I live in Indiana and thoroughly thought my vote wasn’t going to do a bit of good in a Republican state, but apparently many others besides me thought otherwise and the state turned Democrat for the first time since '64. Opinions of the people change but that change would never be reflected if people just assumed “oh my vote doesn’t matter.”
What they said. Despite my queasiness during the past couple of elections, I love my country and want to keep it going. To me, the specific roles of government are national defense, freedom and infrastructure for the common good. We can argue over sub-categories and expansions such as education (good) and subsidized digital TV converters (wtf), but I’ve benefited greatly from things that the government has provided or helped to provide. The price I’m asked to pay? Paying taxes, voting and occasionally serving on juries. That’s a pretty good deal, from my perspective.
Without a single hot-button issue or candidate on the ballot, I require that I read the proposals, find out about the candidates and decide what I’m going to do. Almost all things I’m asked to vote on require some thought. I may not like the Republican social agenda, but I do side with their economic agenda (circa Reagan). In a city council office, the economic agenda is meaningful and the social agenda is not as important (IMO), but in an election where SCOTUS nominations are going to be an issue, the opposite holds true (for me).
So, yeah; walking two blocks, standing in line for 15 minutes and seeing the faces of my fellow citizens, some of them blinking back tears of joy, and voting in the single most important election in my 46 years on this planet seemed like a good use of my time and energy. I just hope I don’t get all arrogant about it.
Texas is my polling place. I could never not vote. At the very least, it takes the proportion away from my opponent the more we others vote.
That said, in 1996 I registered and voted in Oakland, California, a place I’ve never set foot in. (No, I did NOT also vote in Texas that year.) Texas was a lock for Dole, and California was a close call between Dole and Clinton. Being here in Thailand, I decided I wanted to vote somewhere it could do some good for Clinton. I had friends in Oakland and with their permission, used them for my “home.” It was neat voting on all sorts of other local stuff. For instance, I voted for permitting the medical use of marijuana. I voted in favor of new library funds. Etc.
After 1996, I registered back in Texas again.
I live in Vermont, which was polled at ~67% Obama. It was “guaranteed” enough that VT Obama volunteers all reported to NH to work on people there. I struggled with whether to vote at all, since it didn’t matter. I voted for Nader, not because it really matters, but that’s where my heart was, and this way I voted and can criticize anything that happens.
I’m an old cynical, pessimistic bastard (another way of saying a hard-core idealist or unreconstruced romantic). And I don’t believe in god and I don’t join clubs or crowds or stand in stupid lines. I don’t pledge allegiance to the flag and I don’t sing the National Anthem (although I do harmonize by humming). So I’m not what you’d call a patriot. But I really am a patriot. I get chills when I think about election day and the strange calling that causes so many of us to walk, zombie-like, to the polling place and be a citizen. I wouldn’t vote early for anything. It’s a thrill to be part of the process - even if my particular vote doesn’t count this time. I’ve proudly participated in the democratic process. When Michael Moore wrote “Dude, Where’s My Country?” he spoke for many of us, but one place that country still exists is in the ideals of the place that ask us to proclaim our preferences in the booth. A real treat it is to go through the process.
Did you really just type that out and post it in public?
Huh. Must have been like Nevada this year; in 1996, Clinton won CA by 13 points, which Obama nearly doubled this year, and Obama won Nevada by 15 points, even though it was supposed to be a swing state.
As we saw this week, yesterday’s “guaranteed” state is tomorrow’s surprising win for the other party. The national popular vote still matters in showing a candidate’s margin of support. And yes, voting is your civic duty, something many, many people since 1776 have fought, suffered and died to protect. I have sworn two great oaths in my life, to be loving and true to my wife and to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and I take both very seriously. Voting is part of the latter. My individual vote doesn’t matter all that much in most races, but in the aggregate every vote is important.
I didn’t early-vote because I like the civic ritual of voting in a polling place: walking in and identifying myself, being given the ballot, walking over to the booth and marking my choices. We often take our kids with us to vote. Someday they’ll vote too, I hope, and continue to play a role in the governance of this great republic.
It’s not like I voted twice. Being “stateless,” I can pretty much pick wherever I want my home to be. But my father in Texas died a couple years later, and while there for the funeral I picked up a new driver’s license (my Hawaiian one had expired long before) and went ahead and registered there again while I was at it. I have no connections whatsoever to Texas now, or any other state – even the Texas driver’s license I picked up expired, so now all I have is a Thai driver’s license – but I’ve settled into that for my “home.”
Besides, the people in the office there like the stamps from Thailand.
This was the 12th time I’ve voted in a Presidential election and the most enthusiastic that I’ve ever been. There wasn’t much doubt that Tennessee would go for McCain, but it was such a pleasure to vote for Barack Obama. And yes, I wanted to be able to tell my grandchildren someday. Two of them are of voting age themselves and if they ever come to see me, I want to be able to hold my head up.
Besides, Morning Joe S. on MSNBC just assumed that Nashville would also vote red. It doesn’t usually and once again it supported the Democrat. (Someone needs to give that man some decaf.)