Let Freedom Count

Today is October 21^st and I just voted early.  What a fantastic idea.  I’ve been traveling a bit recently and wasn’t sure where I’d be on November 2^nd so I was planning on doing the absentee thing.  Lo and behold, it turns out that in Florida you can vote early starting October 18^th at about a dozen places in my county.  No lines.  Piece of cake.

 

If anybody cannot figure out those electronic voting machines, they don’t have any business voting.  I’m dead serious.  You’d have to be a complete moron to screw that up.  But I’m not a big proponent of letting morons vote either.  I don’t think that having a pulse and watching a few campaign ads makes you qualified to choose the leadership of this country.  There ought to be a test to make sure you understand the issues you’re voting on.  Democracy is scary stuff.  Thank God this is a republic.

 

Speaking of democracy, when I was in NYC a couple weeks ago I saw Kerry supporters out on the sidewalks trying to sign everybody up.  My first thought was: “What a waste of time.  Don’t they know that NY is already going to the Democrats?”  My second thought: “Of course they know that.  They’re trying to make sure Kerry wins the popular vote.”  We saw this big push after the 2000 fiasco to do away with the “outdated” Electoral College.  If Kerry wins the popular, but loses the electoral, be prepared for a firestorm of protest.  But I don’t think they have a leg to stand on.  As much as they like to call it “outdated”, the Electoral College is crucial to the foundations of our government.

 

But nobody loses gracefully anymore.  Just look at the last election and the last two Olympics.  I’m sure we’ll see more of it this year.  I read an article yesterday about how Kerry has lawyers waiting in six fueled jets within an hour of each battleground state.  It shouldn’t be like this.

 

The hardest part about voting is figuring out the legalese on those amendments.  I like to think I’m above average and I had to read a couple of those twice before I figured out which side I was on.