The cry of voter fraud is not unusual during elections.  It is something that happens every time power changes hands, and it will always happen.  This year, however, the cries are happening a bit early with the McCain campaign stating that Obama plans on stealing the election through voter fraud, citing the recent controversy with Acorn as evidence.

I, personally, find these cries to be somewhat ironic as Colorado comes under suit due to illegally disenfranchising voters, and voters are reporting that e-voting machines are switching their Obama votes to McCain.  If Obama is trying to steal this election why is it that these major instances of voting trouble benefit the Republican candidate in this election?  Seems like a poor choice on McCain’s part to cry fraud when the issues that are being reported point to him.

Posted by Wes Mueller on 10/27 at 01:04 PM  •  (0) Comments •  permalink

I finally went through my ballot and made my choices last night.  It feels great to vote in my first Presidential election, even though I know that my vote as an individual does not count towards whether my candidate wins or not.  This is what I’d like to discuss today, actually.  The popular vote versus the electoral college.

I have been an advocate for reforming the way we select our president for sometime.  The electoral college has obvious loopholes that can allow a nationally unpopular candidate to win an election based on high electoral value in a few states over relatively low electoral value in others.  For example, in the 1968 Richard Nixon won the presidential election with 301 electoral points, while his main opponent, Hubert Humphery, collected 191 points.  Nixon received a little more than 500, 000 more votes than Hubert Humphery in the national popular vote (which made up less than 1% of the popular vote that year) yet he one the electoral college by more than 100 points.  We then saw the effects of the electoral college again in 2000, when Al Gore won actually won the national popular vote, but lost the election when Florida’s electoral votes were given to President Bush by a Supreme Court decision that put the election decision in the hands of then-Florida Secretary of State and Bush campaign manager Katherine Harris.

Obviously, there are serious issues with a system that allows one candidate to lose the popular vote but win the election.  The answer to this could be a constitutional amendment to make the election a matter of the national popular vote.  A far easier way to solve this issue is with the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.  Each state has the right to decide how their electoral votes are distributed, and states that pass the pact will automatically go to the winner of the national popular vote.  If enough states do this to make at least 270 points go to the national popular vote winner it will effectively turn the popular vote into the deciding factor for the election, the way it should be now.  No messy constitutional amendments, just states acting with in their rights to affect a nation wide change towards democracy.

Posted by Wes Mueller on 10/24 at 11:36 AM  •  (0) Comments •  permalink

There is very little I can say about the election at this point that I have not said already.  I have regurgitated the words of professional writers and reporters, analyzing and giving my outlook on what is being said to America.  I have read relentlessly:  Obama said this, McCain said that, truth buried under a heaping pile of eloquence and straight talk.  Most of America made up their minds on who they would elect the day the primaries ended and the general election began.  Both sides vie for that always precious resource: the undecided, the moderate.  The people who can hear six months of political talk, news and advertising and still not have a clear idea of who they agree with more.  To me it seems ridiculous to still campaign so hard at this point, a time when people are already sending out their votes, where people are already making their decisions on paper.  It seems outrageous to me that there’s people who still have not made up their mind on which candidate they will vote for.

Posted by Wes Mueller on 10/22 at 01:44 PM  •  (0) Comments •  permalink

Sorry there was not a post on Friday.  I was unable to access my tools for posting for some reason.  It was crashing Firefox every time I tried.  Also, just as a little bit of forewarning, by January 1st I plan on being switched over to local politics (local being the Portland metropolitan area and occasionally Oregon as a whole).

Goodbye Ayers, hello McCarthy.  The latest attacks on Obama have changed their tone from calling him a terrorist to calling him a socialist.  Since the final presidential debate McCain has been repeating that Obama wants to “spread the wealth around”.  The irony is that both candidates want to spread the wealth around.  The difference is who they’re taking from and who they’re giving to.  Obama wants to pull money from the wealthy to give to the middle class, the trickle-up economics that created our enormous surplus under Clinton.  McCain wants to keep the taxes the same on the middle class and cut taxes for the wealthy, a continuation of the Jeffersonian economics that haven’t worked for us in over 50 years.  Which of these is going to appeal more to Americans?  McCain would like to think that America wants to keep paying taxes that are unproportionately high compared to the wealthy, but realistically it is Obama’s more socialist spreading of the wealth that is more appealing to Americans.  No one wants to think that the wealthy are getting off easy when they’re in dire straights, and in a time of such economic uncertainty it seems like suicide to try to appeal to that idea.  Hopefully we’ll see Americans voting in their own interests this election.

Posted by Wes Mueller on 10/20 at 11:19 AM  •  (0) Comments •  permalink

We are now winding down into the final weeks of the general election, with less than a month left before the nation goes to the voting booth.  Will we vote for our downfall or will we elevate ourselves?  Will we “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran” or will we use diplomacy to prevent unnecessary deaths?  Will we vote to continue the failed economic policies of deregulation, or will we change how our economy works, so that it actually does work?  These are the questions that are facing the nation right now, and many polls are showing that the choice is an obvious one.  Barack Obama is leading polls across the country.  People are tired of diversionary personal attacks, and they want someone who will tell them what they believe.  John McCain has been on the attack for the past weeks, at it has not helped his position in the polls in the slightest.  Recent polls show that the more McCain attacks, the more people want to vote for Obama.  The more they bring up Ayers, the more the voters bring up the economy.  Tonight we look towards the final debate before the election, what could very well be McCain’s last stand.  If McCain doesn’t affect a major turnaround in voter opinion tonight, he might as well give up the race.  Any chance he has rests on his performance tonight.

Posted by Wes Mueller on 10/15 at 11:24 AM  •  (0) Comments •  permalink