It could have very easily gone the other way, though, Pam. (And it might well have, if there hadn't been Republican party members challenging people to show multiple forms of ID when they have voted in the same place for years -- given Laura's story and the reports of hours several *hours* long in Ohio, how many people left instead of putting up with the situation? What about people who had young kids with them, or elderly people would couldn't physically stand for 4 hours straight? Or blue collar employees who had to get to work or be fired? No matter how you look at it, no matter what party was doing it, this kind of harassment was just plain wrong, and definitely unAmerican.)
If I recall the numbers from the news correctly, Bush won the popular vote by about 3 million this time, but he only won Ohio by about 100,000. If 110,000 more people in Ohio had voted for Kerry, he would have won the state and the presidency ... yet he would have still lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. It could have very easily been the opposite of what happened in 2000 with Gore.
And I think it's a safe bet that if we would have had the same results as 2000, only with the Democratic candidate winning, the Republican party would have been first in line to criticize the electoral college.
There is a movement in that direction, regardless, and while I'm glad the process wasn't drawn out again this year, I almost wish it would have happened (with Kerry winning the electoral college even though Bush had more votes) because it would have brought the issue even more to the forefront. I, too, think the electoral college process is outdated and should be replaced. The argument that voters in small states are ignored doesn't hold water with me because *my* vote is ignored the way it is now -- I'm a Democrat in a predominately Republican state, which means my vote in presidential elections is pretty much void. Campaigning and technology are totally different now than they were in 1776, and I don't think we can take the same reasons for the system to be automatically valid anymore.
All that said, and as much as I wish there had been a different result, I'm glad we're not going through the nightmare of 2000. It's better to have it decided now. Even if I find the result very scary for the future of this country.
Kathy (who, even as a Democrat, voted a split ticket for my local and state races)
