My vote does count...

Ever since we decided to live inside the city (DC), I've been thinking about all the aspects of my life that are about to change...and there are many.

• going back to work in the office 5 days a week (can we just say I'm going to have to buy some new clothes?)
• having to walk the dogs for potty time and the fun that ensues (no back yard anymore)
• getting used to using a security system (it talks, "the system is armed, please exit now")
• taxation without representation

There are more, but I'll stop here. The last bullet is really what this post is about. I'll extrapolate on the others later.

I've been obsessing over the fact that once we officially move to DC, my vote won't count. Someone asked me if that fact had ever bothered me before. My response? Not really because it didn't really affect me. Selfish, I know. It's not that it didn't bother me necessarily, it's just that never really spent much time thinking about it. Again, because it didn't affect me.

Anyway, I've talked to multiple people about this lately...most of whom live in DC. And it wasn't until last night that I actually learned that my vote really does count...at least in a presidential election.

We were talking to my father-in-law last night at our family meet and greet and he told us that DC does have electoral college votes. I was surprised and not really sure because no one else had bothered to share that information with me (nor had I bothered to look it up...until now). I don't know if people don't realize it or they just didn't think it was worth sharing...but it definitely is.

So, DC does have 3 electoral college votes. Now this doesn't help with other elections, but at least I know my vote will count in the presidential election...not that I'm feeling really confident right now about the choices, but that's beside the point.

Here's the info I found from the FAQ section of the electoral college Web site:

***************************
How do the 538 electoral votes get divided among the States?

The number of electoral votes allotted to each State corresponds to the number of Representatives and Senators that each State sends to Congress. The distribution of electoral votes among the States can vary every 10 years depending on the results of the United States Census.

One of the primary functions of the Census is to reapportion the 435 members of the House of Representatives among the States, based on the current population. The reapportionment of the House determines the division of electoral votes among the States. In the Electoral College, each State gets one electoral vote for each of its Representatives in the House, and one electoral vote for each of its two Senators.

Thus, every state has at least 3 electoral votes, because the Constitution grants each State two Senators and at least one Representative. In addition to the 535 electoral votes divided among the States, the District of Columbia has three electoral votes because the 23rd Amendment granted it the same number of votes as the least populated State.

***************************

Woohoo!