Electoral Vote in 2008

I love, love, love, love Electoral-Vote.com.

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

Watch this site.

Know this site.

Election after election, this site has the best aggregate analysis for the US Presidential Elections process.

The news may be tough at times to watch. Yet this is the place I have found the best state-by-state and national coverage.

The fate of the planet rests in this next election. 305,465,225 million Americans.

They will vote on many issues, including the fate of their neighbors. Because only those with the right to vote can cast their ballot on behalf of the disenfranchised. Right now, in the United States, the “land of the free,” we are growing the rate of disenfranchised people. Those unable-to-vote within the borders of the United States are somewhere north of 23-39.5 million people. This includes:

• ±3.9 million convicted felons
• 12.1 million legal permanent resident (LPR) aliens
• 7-20 million illegal immigrants, as well as…
• 123,000 - 3.5 million homeless and disaffected citizens.

One particular aspect to note are the 3.1 million US citizen children — those born in the United States to unauthorized immigrant parents. They by birth are “legal,” yet their parents and guardians are not.

Thus the range of undocumented Americans is very difficult to establish. It wasn’t so long ago that we thought the number was far lower. The undocumented immigrant population was thought to be only 5-6 million as recently as the year 2000.

The 2000 Census totally shattered that perception. The number was revised rapidly to 8.5 million. The US population count of 281.4 million was surprisingly off by 5-7 million people. That’s the equivalent of misplacing the entire Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Or everyone in the region of Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington.

The more the numbers are analyzed, the more we realize how complex the problem is, and the less sure we are of exactly how many people there are in the country. Or what we should do about it.

Yet, if we consider 23-39.5 million people living in the United States are unable to vote, consider your own enfranchisement. That’s anywhere between 7.5% - 13% of the population in the United States unable to vote. Your vote will count for yourself, and for these people also.

I always recall that rallying cry, “No taxation without representation.” This was what sparked our own American Revolution. The basic right to vote, and the value that vote has, and the ramification your vote results in — all of these are important, urgent issues. They can each easily become a major crisis in the coming century.

So this year, make sure to get out to vote. Consider what democracy is, and what it means to you, and to your neighbors, and to the world, here and now in the 21st Century.

Thank you.

-Pete.

p.s. Remember to check out Electoral-Vote.com!