The Rants:

Why is this here?

Attention!

I don't normally do this -- in fact, I can't recall a time I've done this. But I want to use this space and the 50,000 hits a month it gets to make a political suggestion.

Many people here and elsewhere complain that they don't particularly like either of the major party choices, but feel that voting for the Green, Natural Law, Libertarian or Reform candidates would be "wasting their vote." I want to explain why, in some areas of the country, it is not a wasted vote and in fact can help alleviate what you perceive to be a lack of choice in the field of Presidential candidates.

The secret is the program of the Federal Elections Committee whereby political parties that draw a significant number of voters qualify for a large amount of matching Federal campaign funds in later elections. The magic number that represents "significant" is 5% of the electorate. If a party draws 5% or more of the overall nationwide popular vote, they can qualify for matching Federal funds in the next election cycle. Since modern campaigns run on money, this can make or break alternative parties, and by extension, make or break your real right to choose distinct candidates.

How does this fit in? Well, a comparatively few states are actually considered to be undecided about which candidate they'll support in November. Most states are pretty solidly Democrat or Republican. In those "safe" states, most candidates don't bother spending more than a bare minimum of time and money. In those states, you generally don't see many political ads, you won't get many in-person visits, no debates, nothing. You're being taken for granted. However, this is not all bad. If you live in a state where one candidate has more than a 5% lead in the polls over the other, why not take your vote and make a REAL difference: vote for a smaller party candidate! This won't affect the outcome of THIS election, but if that will help your favorite third party get to that magic nationwide 5% of the vote, you will have made an enormous difference in future elections. Those smaller parties will then have access to Federal money they can use to expand the issues, challenge the major parties, and deliver a REAL range of choices in the future.

I'm not gonna tell you who to vote for or against, but if you live in a state like New York or California or Maryland, which are expected to go Democratic in a big way, or Texas or Georgia or Virginia, which tend to go Republican, use your vote for something more important than just running up the vote totals of the major candidates. It doesn't matter if Bush or Gore win a state by a million votes or three votes, they still get all the electoral votes, so why waste your vote "piling on?" Use it to build real choices for a wider range of future candidates. Break out of the sameness of DemoPublican (or RepubliCrat) politics!

Vote third party -- show them the money!

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled rants.