my own drum

Are you tired of politics yet? There have been more than 20 debates in the last 18 months. Have you heard enough yet? Political advertisements are set to barrage television Prime Time. Have you seen enough already? Any poll worthy of mention has been mentioned. Enough already! Are you tired of politics yet?

Let's talk about polls for a minute. The first obvious question is who does the counting? It's not a question with a quick answer. There's CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Bloomberg, Ipsos-McClatchy, Pew Research Center, Gallup, NewsWeek, USA Today... the list goes on and on and on. With all of these pollsters you think you might know just one person who has participated in a poll. That brings up the second question, whose opinion are we really looking at? In my 55 years I've never once been asked to participate in a poll. And I don't know anyone who has participated in a poll. There is no verification; all these numbers could be nothing more that the desire of the current pollster.

However, for all of the numbers it's nice to know that none of them really matter. At least not to the average guy or gal on the street. The below-average person may well be influenced by these irrational yet irrefutable numbers, but the average person already knows what he/she thinks.

There is only one poll that counts. No, it's not the exit poll on election day. That poll simply gives reporters something to talk about. I did participate in an exit poll one time, and I lied about everything I did in that booth. So much for reporting the facts. You might think the final tally of popular votes would be a poll that counts. Don't count on it. You may recall that in the year 2000, Al Gore actually won the popular vote, 50,999,897 votes to Bush's 50,456,002 votes. Bush and Cheney took office.

The reason has to do with the one poll that counts, the vote of the Electoral College. This system is described in Article II, section 1 of the Constitution.

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice-President chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

Electors can be appointed by a state's legislature, or the legislature could empower the governor to choose electors. In some cases, state law allows for such appointments if the popular vote cannot be used to determine a winner, such as if election results are contested up to federally-mandated deadlines. These Electors are not bound to vote along party lines or to the desire of the popular vote of the citizenry. In other words, they are free to vote their conscience, or lack thereof.

Currently, the Electoral College includes 538 electors, 535 for the total number of congressional members, and three who represent Washington, D.C. On the Monday following the second Wednesday in December, the electors of each state meet in their respective state capitals to officially cast their votes for president and vice president. These votes are then sealed and sent to the president of the Senate, who on January 6th opens and reads the votes in the presence of both houses of Congress. The winner is sworn into office at noon on January 20th.

So forget the polls, forget the hype, in fact forget everything, except to exercise your right to vote on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November. This year that day is November 11th. Then hope and pray that on December 15th the Electors for your state vote in a manner that reflects the popular vote in your state.

The only poll that counts in this election is the one that is counted on January 6, 2009.

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