(side note: I spent over three hours writing and editing a post about Shannon Scott's death and what it stirred up inside me. Myspace promptly ate it whole, dammit! I guess the most important thing is that I got those thoughts out of my head and expressed onto some medium, but I still feel that I should write something. I will - again - as soon as my thoughts compose themselves again.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog entry:)

Voter apathy is something that amazes me. Maybe it's because I was glued to the TV set while the 2000 election results were being hashed out, maybe it's simply because I'm more aware of the limited amount of future that's available to me and I want it to be a good one. I dunno.

But I can't let statement like this one pass by without comment:

I'd still probably vote, because you're voting for more than the President, of course, but I'm not going to pretend that my millionth-of-a-percentage-point or whatever is really making a difference.

My reply to this:

To win the election, a candidate must have 270 electoral votes. In 2000, Bush won with 271 votes.

In Florida, the difference between the two candidates was 537 votes out of more than 5800000 votes cast. As a result, 25 electoral votes went to Bush.

Missouri's margin of victory in 2000 was 3.34%, so our 11 electoral votes went to Bush.

Think your vote doesn't count? Think again.

I hope each and every one of you voted this week.

Oh, and check out my favorite website for updates on the election: www.electoral-vote.com.

Love and pasta, and democracy,
John