Elections and Voting and Pudding

In regards to the 2000 presidential race between Al Gore and George Bush, I am more inclined to agree with the majority opinion, but only because of the fact that the four counties that Gore requested a recount in did not complete the recount by the deadline, which was December 12^th. The officials conducting the recount should have known of the deadline and been quick and efficient about it so as to declare the presidential election winner, but instead seemed to take their time. I concede the fact that it would have been quite difficult to determine some voters actual chosen candidates if there were multiple “dimpled” chads, and I can’t see it being quite realistic- or legal- to call up the person and ask them who they voted for. They may just change their mind right over the telephone. Other than that, there is the possibility that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bush simply due to partisan loyalties, or hey, maybe they just wanted for the presidential election to be done and over with.

I feel that fundraising, while important to help finance a campaign, has started to take precedence over more qualifying attributes- namely, a competent and smart candidate. It seems as though instead of actually just focusing on understanding and dissecting a candidate’s stance on important issues, that we must also feel as though they can be popular enough to raise numerous amounts of money to help their campaign and to be given the possibility to be elected into office. And while I understand that fundraising is important to fund the political ads and get the word out, I just get so tired of hearing how much money somebody raised in an excess of millions that could be used for much better things. We could say that there is no mandatory amount of money to be raised, but then people really would question on whether or not the person is actually quite serious about winning an election if he cannot raise up a good chunk of money.

There is a lot of voter apathy in the United States, with a majority of it due to issues such as ethnicity, age, sex, and education. Women and Caucasian people tend to vote more than men or ethnic minorities, and as one gets older they typically get a little more involved (or at least concerned) with politics, while younger people are not so driven to become interested in politics. Education is another huge issue, as depending on one’s level of education they may think that voting is not all that important or are ill-informed of the issues and candidates at hand, or they may have a job that does not let them have the time off to vote, as U.S. elections are generally held during week days. Another thought is that people have become disenfranchised with voting and feel as though it is useless anyways. Indeed, even now my grandfather at the age of sixty-one recently told me that his vote feels like nothing, that it doesn’t really matter. General distrust of the government could be another reason for some as well.

I commented on Gabrielle Miller, Melissa Ray, and Amber Waters blogs.