Attention all US citizens...

Just so you're not disappointed come next Tuesday, here's a tidbit you may not know.

The President isn't selected on Nov 2. The President is officially selected on Dec 13th with the meeting of the Electoral College. While most states have legislation binding the electors to pass votes according to the people's wishes, not all do. (Surprise!) Add to that the Colorado vote on whether to change their system from winner-take-all to by-congressional-district (joining the only other two rational states in the union), and have it count retroactively to *this* election (okay, that bit may not have been too rational), we may not know even the *projected* electoral votes until several days after Nov 2. Given that CO has 9 votes, and the predicted spread I saw last was 4 votes, +/- 3 error, and that CO is expected to split their votes 5:4 Bush/Kerry (instead of 9 Bush... but even that's in doubt, since the margin of error is larger than the gap, it could end up 9 for Kerry... or 5:4 Kerry/Bush... or 6:3 for either, or...) if the resolution passes to go on a per-district-basis... anything can happen *even if everything else in the country goes 100% exactly right*. (No matter what happens, here's hoping the per-district resolution passes. It's the right direction. That'll just leave 47 other states to get their act together...)

And this doesn't even get into the legal battles that are going to come down the pipe for reasons valid and imaginary. Oh, the whining and accusations are going to be fierce! (Which is almost funny, given that we've *always* had these problems, but no one's seemed to really give a rat's ass until four years ago...)

It would take a landslide to have one side or the other officially withdraw, and that's just not going to happen. Media outlets can make all the predictions they want (and be wrong again), but simply put, nobody knows what's going to happen.

Just so no one is expecting, like, to know that night. Give it a few days to see how things are going before celebrating and/or rioting. This one is too close, with too many variables, and too many emotions, (not to mention lawsuits) to know by Nov 3rd. Or maybe even Nov 30th.

Me, I think I'll vote on Tue, then go kick back with a nice bottle of scotch and see about ignoring the world until Dec 14th, at which time I won't be surprised if either candidate comes out on top. Dead heats are like that.

(Oooh, and if it comes out a *tie* at 269 each? The House of Representatives decides, popular vote and electoral college be damned. In which case they may have until the swearing in, which I believe this time around is Jan 4. And that would be the currently sitting House, pre-election, which is 227/205/1/2 Repub/Dem/Ind/Vacant. Don't worry though, the Senate gets to choose the Veep. At 51/48/1 Repub/Dem/Ind, we'd likely have Bush/Cheney again, but it's possible we could have a Bush/Edwards White House. Scary, no? I'd kind of actually love to see that, just to watch people's heads explode in confusion. But oh god, the screams of 'stealing' the election would be horrendous, even though this is the system we've had for a century...)

Attention all US citizens...

Just so you're not disappointed come next Tuesday, here's a tidbit you may not know.

The President isn't selected on Nov 2. The President is officially selected on Dec 13th with the meeting of the Electoral College. While most states have legislation binding the electors to pass votes according to the people's wishes, not all do. (Surprise!) Add to that the Colorado vote on whether to change their system from winner-take-all to by-congressional-district (joining the only other two rational states in the union), and have it count retroactively to *this* election (okay, that bit may not have been too rational), we may not know even the *projected* electoral votes until several days after Nov 2. Given that CO has 9 votes, and the predicted spread I saw last was 4 votes, +/- 3 error, and that CO is expected to split their votes 5:4 Bush/Kerry (instead of 9 Bush... but even that's in doubt, since the margin of error is larger than the gap, it could end up 9 for Kerry... or 5:4 Kerry/Bush... or 6:3 for either, or...) if the resolution passes to go on a per-district-basis... anything can happen *even if everything else in the country goes 100% exactly right*. (No matter what happens, here's hoping the per-district resolution passes. It's the right direction. That'll just leave 47 other states to get their act together...)

And this doesn't even get into the legal battles that are going to come down the pipe for reasons valid and imaginary. Oh, the whining and accusations are going to be fierce! (Which is almost funny, given that we've *always* had these problems, but no one's seemed to really give a rat's ass until four years ago...)

It would take a landslide to have one side or the other officially withdraw, and that's just not going to happen. Media outlets can make all the predictions they want (and be wrong again), but simply put, nobody knows what's going to happen.

Just so no one is expecting, like, to know that night. Give it a few days to see how things are going before celebrating and/or rioting. This one is too close, with too many variables, and too many emotions, (not to mention lawsuits) to know by Nov 3rd. Or maybe even Nov 30th.

Me, I think I'll vote on Tue, then go kick back with a nice bottle of scotch and see about ignoring the world until Dec 14th, at which time I won't be surprised if either candidate comes out on top. Dead heats are like that.

(Oooh, and if it comes out a *tie* at 269 each? The House of Representatives decides, popular vote and electoral college be damned. In which case they may have until the swearing in, which I believe this time around is Jan 4. And that would be the currently sitting House, pre-election, which is 227/205/1/2 Repub/Dem/Ind/Vacant. Don't worry though, the Senate gets to choose the Veep. At 51/48/1 Repub/Dem/Ind, we'd likely have Bush/Cheney again, but it's possible we could have a Bush/Edwards White House. Scary, no? I'd kind of actually love to see that, just to watch people's heads explode in confusion. But oh god, the screams of 'stealing' the election would be horrendous, even though this is the system we've had for a century...)