It’s becoming a trend…well, ever since the 2000 election. All day yesterday I saw posts on Facebook and heard people say publicly that, “My vote doesn’t count,” “The electoral process is broken” and similar comments in reference to the United State’s use of the Electoral College versus a popular vote. It is perceived that because a candidate MAY win the Electoral College but lose the “Popular” Vote that some voting injustice is taking place. That is not true and in fact only three U.S. Presidents have won the Electoral College while failing to win the Popular Vote. A quick fact and then a quick explanation as to how your vote actually DOES count in the electoral college process and then you can get right back to stalking people on social media:
FACT: We are not a democracy, we are a (representative) republic. A democracy utilizes a popular vote to decide elections, policies, etc.; a republic chooses representatives to go make policies on behalf of them and their states.
Why Your Vote Matters: First, a democracy would not work and our forefathers were very wise in understanding this. If elections were decided based on popular vote, states that had a larger population like California and New York would make all of the decisions for the entire country since they have a larger population. For example: California has a population of 37.7 Million people and New Hampshire has 1.3 Million people, that is a huge difference when it comes to deciding important issues such as the presidency.
Second, your vote does matter! So goes your vote, so goes your state and your state provides presidential candidates a specified number of electoral votes that help win elections. A republic uses a popularity vote within the state, just not nationwide. Sure, everyone says that the battleground states are what decide elections, but that is only half true. If George W. Bush had not won West Virginia (5 votes) or New Hampshire (4 votes), he would not have won the Presidency in 2000.
RECAP: 1. A democracy would utilize a popular vote resulting in more votes from larger populated areas. Presidents and national issues would be decided by the larger populated states. 2. A republic uses a representative system which allows those states to elect our President based on the population of that state. Those representatives vote based on the popularity vote of that state. Your vote matters in determining who your state casts their vote for. It’s worked for 236 years…in fact it worked this year with President Obama winning both the Electoral College and the Popular Vote…and it will continue to work in the future.
immediately started sharing their opinion’s about his choice. Some were praising the choice, while others started questioning whether or not Barak properly vetted Joe Bidden. Why all of the questions? Well, Joe Bidden has a history of saying things that are not so popular or proper. He made what could be considered as racist remarks about Obama, saying he was the first ‘clean’ ‘articulate’ African American in contention for the democratic parties nomination, he said that ‘you have to have a little Indian accent to go into a Seven-Eleven convenient store…I’m not kidding,’ as well, he point blankly said that his now running mate was lacking the experience needed to be President and that the office of President was not the place for ‘on the job training.’ Biden later blasted Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience and comments he made concerning Pakistan and Iran. The fear for democrats who support the election of Barak Obama is that something will come out about Biden or that he will say something that could potentially ruin Barak’s chances of being elected.
What if, John Edwards was the chosen running mate for Barak Obama, and Obama chose to select Edwards as his running mate 1 month ago? The experts this weekend were saying that some candidates are not vetted as much as others because they have already been vetted as Presidential candidates, therefore they feel that Biden may have had less vetting than someone who did not run for President this year, but what if the same process had been taken with Edwards? The recent news about Edwards’ affair would have sunk Obama’s ship, as would any issues with Biden if they were to come about.
there anything in my life that if it were discovered would potentially embarrass my God, my family, my church, or my employer? You are probably familiar with 
Blog Pirates
A Blog Pirate: Someone who tries to steal the spotlight from a more successful blog in order to make their blog noticed and to increase their traffic stats.
This is usually done by pointlessly criticizing posts in order to drive traffic to their blog. Most blog pirates surf the “What’s Hot” on the front page of blog hosts (I.E. WordPress.com) hunting their next victim. They also search through the tags pages to see what blogs have the most comments (thus a high level of traffic) and rips into the author of the blog and/or their content. If you have ever crossed a Blog Pirate you will see why they have to steal the spotlight, its usually because their content is not good enough to draw their own crowd and keep them.
Blog Pirates know that most authors will defend their content thus linking to the pirate and driving their readers (traffic) to the pirate’s site, they also know that when people search for key words pertaining to the victim’s blog in Google the searcher will be driven to the pirate’s blog as well, thus attracting extra traffic. Blog Pirates are interested in one thing, signing on to WordPress and immediately going to their daily stats and seeing how many hits they had that day…nothing more, nothing less.
Watch it! You may be hijacked by a Blog Pirate today
Join the Conversation! Have you ever been attacked by a Blog Pirate? Know anyone else that has? I’ve been attacked and I know others that have been attacked as well.