Don't Forget To Vote!!!

That is all.

New Electoral College System

I found this method of administering the nomination of Electors to the Electoral College very intriguing: The state of Maryland Senate has passed a bill that would compel the Electors chosen to cast their vote for the candidate who wins the majority vote in the country. If passed by the house and signed by the governor (who said he would) this would take effect once states representing at least 270 electoral votes. It will be interesting to see if many people pick up on this and other states try to pass similar statutes. This would effectively eliminate the Electoral College without a Constitutional Amendment. Roll that one around in your head for a bit.

Presidential Elections have always been one of those things I have had a problem with. I do not like that the popular vote of the country could significantly vary from the controlling electoral vote. I have gone through a several versions of ways states can improve it, such as dividing votes by who wins congressional districts (done by Maine and Nebraska) or dividing up electoral votes based on a percentage of the popular vote won (my most recent favorite). I will be watching the Maryland plan to see how it is received by other states.

Voting Paper Trail

It appears that Congress is finally seriously considering a paper trail for electronic voting.

This is something many voting rights groups have strongly felt has been needed since to proliferation of electronic voting machines. I had to vote provisionally in the last election so I have not had the opportunity to use our new electonic machines. I was somewhat glad for that because the lack of a paper trail concerns me.

I miss the times I was voting in the Boston area (not just because my polling location was literally 200ft from my front door). My town used the optical scanning machines. I would fill out my ballot with a pen, check it over to make sure it was correct and then slide it into an optical scanning machine that would count the votes and drop the paper ballot into a lock box. It was relatively simple, but I felt confident my vote was being counted.

Hopefully there is enough support to get some sort of paper trail requirement for Federal Elections.