Close Presidential Elections

How close was the last Presidential Election? What many people do not realize is that it was only the 13^th closest (12 prior elections were closer).

An interesting fact is that four elections were not decided by popular vote but (as by law) by the electoral college. All four were won by Republicans. About 38% of all registered voters are Democrats, 29% are Republicans and 33% are either “Other” or Independents.

The Electoral College gives an advantage to smaller states since the formula allows each three electoral votes regardless of population. The following chart:

				House	Electoral
	Rank	State	Population	Seats	Votes	Red	Blue
1	52	Wyoming	581,381	1	3	3
2	51	Vermont	647,064	1	3		3
3	50	District of Columbia	671,803	1*	3		3
4	49	Alaska	733,583	1	3	3
5	48	North Dakota	779,261	1	3	3
6	47	South Dakota	909,824	1	3	3
7	46	Delaware	1,018,396	1	3		3
8	45	Rhode Island	1,093,734	2	4		4
9	44	Montana	1,122,867	2	4	4
10	43	Maine	1,385,340	2	4	purple	purple
11	42	New Hampshire	1,395,231	2	4	purple	purple
12	41	Hawaii	1,440,196	2	4		4
13	40	West Virginia	1,775,156	2	4	4
14	39	Idaho	1,939,033	2	4	4
15	38	Nebraska	1,967,923	3	5	5
16	37	New Mexico	2,113,344	3	5		5
17	36	Kansas	2,937,150	4	6	6
18	35	Mississippi	2,940,057	4	6	6
19	34	Arkansas	3,045,637	4	6	6
20	33	Nevada	3,177,772	4	6		6
21	32	Iowa	3,200,517	4	6	6
22	30	Utah	3,380,800	4	6	6
			37,674,688		95	59	28
	Total US		331,449,281		538
		% of Total	11.4%		17.7%

11.4% of the population has 17.7% of the votes.

The electoral provides an advantage to Republicans. My question is how well represented are the 1/3 of the registered voters that are not either Democrat or Republican? I have often heard the quip “If you don’t vote for either of the major parties you are throwing your vote away”.

Conservative & Liberal (Political Labels)

I have a problem with labels. The Conservative label tends to conjure images of a bible-thumping reactionary that supports unlimited strict constitutional compliance (or at least one interpretation), unlimited gun access, unlimited support of a free market system, reducing the size and spending for the government (while reducing taxes), military hawks and little concern for the environment.

The Liberal Label tends to represent non-Christian beliefs (often atheist or agnostic), ignorance of the constitution (or last gross misinterpretation), banning of gun ownership, socialism, increased taxation, military hawks and government spending, and idealistic tree huggers.

I have friends who consider themselves Conservatives who have very serious concerns about the future of the environment, recognize the economic abuses of many of our companies, have supported increased government spending, and no longer believe we should be the World’s Cop.

I also have Democrat friends that attend Christian churches, are very fiscally conservative, are members of the NRA, are capitalists, favor a strong defensive military, and are opposed to deficit spending (especially in a good economy).

I am convinced that we “the people” could easily come together on many important issues. Unfortunately, “labels” tend to define the two dominant political parties, and their need to control power gets in the way of representing us. Opposing any initiative presented by the opposition party has become the norm. Independent thinking on issues will be punished.

We need to admit that our system of governing is broken and requires change. The actions needed to repair are easily identified and supported by the vast majority of the electorate but next to impossible to achieve since it would require congressional action or a constitutional amendment: Reduced time permitted for election campaigning along with severely reduced spending limits and term limits.

My idea on this (others could also work): No campaigning or party conventions until 90 days prior to any National Elections, Super PACS are banned, no individual or company contributions in excess of $5,000, and Congressional terms limited to 12 years in total.