Not too long ago we heard a political analyst mention a fact about voting that is one of the most important truths about our electoral process. When anyone exercises their right to vote, that vote counts as much as anyone else's. Our system does not weigh one person's vote more than another. But when you choose NOT to vote you are letting someone else have power over you. 

  There's a fascinating website 270 To Win which shows the electoral college and popular vote totals and maps of every election since the USA was formed. It shows the margins of victories, the issues of the day for each election year, independent party candidates, etc. It's a fun look at election history and you'll get an amazing amount of facts and figures. It's also worth taking a look at 270 To Win to discover some very enlightening albeit less obvious facts about our country.

  The US population has unarguably kept growing since it started and in the early 1900s it cracked the 100 million mark.  It took almost 100 years for the popular vote totals to reach that level in 2000 and that was still significantly a lower percentage of the total US population. In other word more people were allowing others to decide their fate simply by staying home. The percentage ticked up a little in 2004  but were still talking about a number comparable to the entire US population in 1930. That's scary.

 So where are we today? We're told that voter registration is up and early voter turnout is high is spite of continuing efforts to suppress these numbers. Someone we know said that maybe the American electorate was getting smarter. Our retort was that we didn't think so, but that the smarter people were more inspired and active this year. Perhaps a slow climb up from debacle of 2000. 

  In general, we do feel hopeful. Early voting in some states is higher than the total votes counts of 2004. The No on 8 campaign appears to be gaining momentum--we're seeing more celebrities and politicians from both parties coming out against the measure.

 So how about it guys? Do you want to continue to have other people decide the direction of the country and of your personal lives. Or do you want to participate. Think. Vote.