I am exhausted, no doubt you’re exhausted and I think everybody is exhausted with the long run for president. By this time next week it will all be over and our anxiety levels will go down.
However, we will probably not know the winner of the election until the votes are counted in the swing states. Here in Kentucky we already know Trump will win and our votes are of little concern because of the electoral college voting system that is only used in this one election.
The majority of Americans prefer the popular vote and 17 states have passed bills to move in that direction. But those bills they have passed will not matter because their electoral college votes will only count in this election.
Only five presidents have been elected after losing the popular votes. Three of the five came in the 1800’s. The most recent was Donald Trump in 2016 with 304 electoral votes to 227 for Hillary Clinton. In 2000 George W. Bush won with 271 electoral votes to Al Gore’s 266.
Gore had 540,000 more popular votes than Bush and Clinton had 2.9 million more votes than Trump.
Thus, the swing states are the most important to win and this is where most of the campaign money is spent. Many millions have been spent in Pennsylvania and the other swing states while here in Kentucky very little advertising money has passed our way.So, not only are our votes of little concern because we already know the outcome, but we also lose out on the money.
Naturally, being in advertising this concerns me as does the Iowa caucuses where many millions are spent every four years when campaigning begins. A national primary would eliminate Iowa’s hold on the money and attention.
We do have other reasons to vote. The school issue is a hot topic. A “yes” vote is for financial support from your tax money to be spent outside of the common school, such as private schools, and a “no” vote is against.
In Corbin there are five contestants for three school board seats. You can vote for just one or two, but no more than three.
There is only one other vote that matters and it is to prohibit persons who are not citizens of the United States from being allowed to vote. It has a few other items which I thought already were law.
I do like that fact that we have early voting. It starts this Thursday and goes trough Saturday.
So, even though we feel overlooked in Kentucky during a presidential election, it is still important that you vote.
If all this last minute stuff bothers you, turn off the news channels on your TV and watch the Andy Griffith show. It will put a smile on your face.
