President Oliver

It's an exciting day for the kids in Room 203 AND for the entire nation. Today voters all over the America, including but not limited to the kids in Room 203 get to vote for the next President of the United States. I used to think the election process was pretty simple, the one with the most votes wins. However, my recent research at the online public library showed me that the election process is actually a bit more complicated than that. It seems that instead of one huge nationwide election it's more like there are fifty individual statewide elections. Each state is worth a certain number of points called "electoral votes." States with more people are worth more points or electoral votes, states with fewer people are worth less electoral votes. Washington State is worth 11 electoral votes. California has a lot of people living there so it's worth 55. Maine has much smaller population so it's only worth 4 votes. Whoever gets the most votes in each individual state gets all of that state's points. So, whoever gets the most votes in Washington State gets all 11 points. Whoever gets the most votes in California gets all 55 of their points. In the end, they add up all the points (electoral votes) and the candidate who gets 270 or more gets to be President. Wow!

I did some reading on the candidates to see for whom I would vote and neither one had anything to say on really important issues like the price of tuna, the importance of catnip, or regulation of litter boxes. Shocking, isn't it? How do they expect to earn the all important feline vote if they don't care about cat-related issues? I guess I'll have to run for President myself. I don't think I'll be able to run an effective campaign in time for this election, but come 2012...it's all about President Oliver!