Useless Trivia Tuesday - v. IV

Did you know... while a lot of those "one vote matters" stories are bunk, several of them are still apparently true?!

One of the most prolific claims - that we speak English, not German, by the difference of a single vote - is bunk. In the late 1930's, Nazi propagandists were spreading the lie that America had almost become a German-speaking country. In all of their efficiency, it took the Congressional Research Service until 1982 to resolve the story, however. What really happened was - in 1794 German settlers in Virginia petitioned the U.S. Congress to translate certain Federal statutes into German (as well as English). That petition had been referred to a committee, which voted the idea down - by a one vote margin. (German translation on Federal documents hardly makes a national language).

Andrew Johnson was not "saved" from impeachment by one vote in 1868. "Impeachment," as we recently learned, means only that someone has been charged with the crime. Johnson was charged (impeached), but the vote to convict him did fall one vote shy of the necessary two-thirds majority.

I can tell you a handful of stories about where one vote counted, but you'll get bored - so I'll close with this:

Below, I've listed the Presidential election year and the percentage of voters who turned out (voted for President) for these elections according to the FEC:

In 2000, only 51.3% of the Voting Age Population (VAP) turned out to vote. 67.5% of those Registered (REG) turned out.

In 1996, only 49.1% VAP turned out with 74.4% REG showing.
In 1992, only 55.1% VAP.
In 1988, only 50.1% VAP.

And, in non-Presidential election years, we haven't had over 40% VAP turn-out since 1970!

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It's not "one vote," but YOUR VOTE that matters.

This November, I don't care "how" you vote, but "that" you vote!

If you choose to not vote, it's a sad commentary on your life when considering the number of people who have fought and died for your wasted privilege.

Get off your butts, register if you haven't already, and vote!!

National Voter Registration Form
State Voter Registration Deadlines
Where you can register to vote

Election Polls

AOL has an interesting poll-related Election graphic showing how each state would 'go' this November. The poll and graphic are reset the first of each month so that past trends do not affect current sentiments (and maybe poll-stuffing). See AOL Elections 2004: Straw Poll.

Poll-stuffing? Yeah.. don't hold me to that. I just made the word up (as far as I know). I do suspect, however, that every single state wouldn't truly go for Bush - or even be leaning that way as the graphic suggests. Even given a post-convention "bounce," I doubt that Washington D.C. would be the only corner of the Electoral College granting their 3 votes to Kerry.

I'm more inclined to believe (as I have predicted before) that Kerry will win 12 states with the decision not being close enough the challenger to legitimately contest the decision in every court in the land.

What's your prediction? How many states & electoral votes are going to which candidate?

Re: Beginning

Thinking about moving my J from AOL following their censorship of one of the best damned journals around... so, I'll start here with the same post I started with there -

Let's see how this goes... part rant, part raising the B.S. flag, and two parts common sense. Mix that up in a blender and throw it in an online journal and you get a big serving of Un-Common Sense. So, I got the name from a book by J. Robert Oppenheimer (a real smart guy)... it's not like any of our thoughts are entirely original. Every thing we know is a product of our experiences and, with that, a quote from Oppenheimer himself:

Whatever trouble life holds for you, that part of your lives which you spend finding out about things, things that you can tell others about, and that you can learn from them, that part will be essentially a gay, a sunny, a happy life, not untouched by rivalry, maybe not even untouched by an occasional regret that somebody else thought of something that you should have thought of first, but on the whole, one of those nobler parts of the human experience. This makes it true that the life of the scientist is, along with the life of the poet, soldier, prophet, and artist, deeply relevant to man's understanding of his situations and his view of destiny.

Then there was Haliburton who said, "When a man is wrong and wont admit it, he always gets angry."

I hope you find some things here in my journal that you wish you had thought of first.. maybe even something you want to tell others about. Your thoughts are welcome, but if you find yourself getting mad... well, we're all entitled to our opinions and we're all entitled to be wrong... but if you're getting angry, I refer you back to Haliburton.

Have fun, get mad and come back!