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Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Today's #flashfiction #TheGamesForThePresidency

“The one ring to rule them all.”
Kay Jewelers* #quote


        Well, today was an overall good day, played some Pokemon card game on the Internet. But I did have some seizure increase, a chain of them. It hurt, but I've had worse and I'm fine. Anyway onto the flash fiction!

The Games For The Presidency


        Many people may think that the Electoral College system by the Constitution supposed to run only like it does now. But the Constitution doesn't say that the people vote for President and Vice President. The law is that the States pick a system to place their electoral votes for President and Vice President and in the present day they chose the voting system to determine how to cast those valuable votes.
But in the far flung future it is far different...
       Presidential candidate Joe Tallons stared intently into the eyes of candidate Gerald Bellhop. The chairs they sat at were exact replicas. The table completely even. The room equal temperature all around. The game had to be perfectly fair. After all this staring contest was to win the state of Wyoming. Joe felt quite pressured as he lost at marbles over in Arizona but did feel some confidence from his win from the knitting contest over New York. Each game mattered. Each game needed to be tallied. And the candidates would keep playing even after the other one got the majority. It was both required by law and a thing of honor.
       The games for the electoral votes of a state came up as a way to save money on the voting process for the two positions. To please the people they let them pick the games. At first they were serious contests of skills and intelligence, the games became sillier as the people made it a source of amusement that made the most strange things intense. The politicians didn't care. Whatever they thought could get their candidate win. The arrogance of both parties made them both convince themselves the system was in their benefit over the other party. It didn't allow them to dominate the other party consistently but they could crush third parties that didn't assimilate with them by holding massive amounts of “preliminary tournaments” that the smaller parities couldn't keep up with. Other positions of office still operated the same. A presidential candidate trained in identifying flavors of ice cream while a Senator still tried to sway the minds of the people.
Joe won the staring contest. Another few points for his race.
      The games between candidates Joe and Gerald continued. They came to a swing state. The final one on their race. The rest of the games they played would be just a formality for honor and law. This was the last game that matter. Whichever candidate won this state would win the country and make their party dominate for four years.
       A thumb war in Florida. An odd contest of focus and strength. Both of them readied themselves. Every game was tense. Truly all of the games mattered in some way. But this. The last one. The veins and muscles in their hands tensed. The fate of the country relied on the sways and strikes of their thumbs in this moment. They began.
       Joe went on the offensive. He bopped and bapped Gerald over and over. It caused intense strain along with the psychological element already there. But Gerald took his time. He kept focus. He weaved his thumb. He kept steady. And he brought his thumb down on Joe and applied incredible pressure. He pinned it till time and won the presidency.
      By the way, Gerald Bellhop turned out a good president. Looks like the system worked.

1 comment:

  1. In the near future, The National Popular Vote bill could guarantee the majority of Electoral College votes, and thus the presidency, to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the country, by replacing state winner-take-all laws for awarding electoral votes.

    Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps of pre-determined outcomes. There would no longer be a handful of 'battleground' states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 80% of the states that now are just 'spectators' and ignored after the conventions.

    The bill would take effect when enacted by states with a majority of Electoral College votes—that is, enough to elect a President (270 of 538). The candidate receiving the most popular votes from all 50 states (and DC) would get all the 270+ electoral votes of the enacting states.

    The presidential election system, using the 48 state winner-take-all method or district winner method of awarding electoral votes, that we have today was not designed, anticipated, or favored by the Founders. It is the product of decades of change precipitated by the emergence of political parties and enactment by 48 states of winner-take-all laws, not mentioned, much less endorsed, in the Constitution.

    The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founders in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for President. States can, and have, changed their method of awarding electoral votes over the years. Historically, major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action.

    In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided).

    Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in virtually every state surveyed in recent polls
    in recent or past closely divided Battleground states: CO – 68%, FL – 78%, IA --75%, MI – 73%, MO – 70%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM– 76%, NC – 74%, OH – 70%, PA – 78%, VA – 74%, and WI – 71%;
    in Small states (3 to 5 electoral votes): AK – 70%, DC – 76%, DE – 75%, ID – 77%, ME – 77%, MT – 72%, NE -74%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM – 76%, OK – 81%, RI – 74%, SD – 71%, UT – 70%, VT – 75%, WV – 81%, and WY – 69%;
    in Southern and Border states: AR – 80%, KY- 80%, MS – 77%, MO – 70%, NC – 74%, OK – 81%, SC – 71%, TN – 83%, VA – 74%, and WV – 81%; and
    in other states polled: AZ – 67%, CA – 70%, CT – 74%, MA – 73%, MN – 75%, NY – 79%, OR – 76%, and WA – 77%.
    Americans believe that the candidate who receives the most votes should win.

    The bill has passed 33 state legislative chambers in 22 rural, small, medium, large, red, blue, and purple states with 250 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 11 jurisdictions with 165 electoral votes – 61% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.

    NationalPopularVote

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