We all are ready for this presidential election cycle to end

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October 23, 2012

We all are ready for this presidential election cycle to end

Anonymous Enid News and Eagle The Enid News and Eagle Tue Oct 23, 2012, 10:01 PM CDT

ENID, Okla. — Less than two decades have passed since a presidential candidate won the popular vote but lost the electoral college. Remember the hanging chads?

Al Gore lost in 2000. A dozen years later, the Democrat called for an end to the electoral college because it alienates delegates living beyond the battleground states.

“I’ve seen how these states are written off and ignored, and people are effectively disenfranchised in the presidential race. And I really do now think it is time to change that,” Gore told The Hill last August.

If a recent Gallup poll is correct, it will be déjà vu all over again … only in reverse. Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of Gallup, told the Washington Post that we could be headed a split with Romney winning the popular vote and Obama claiming the electoral college — and the election.

The truth is that we don’t know for sure. You can stare at CNN’s squiggly yellow and green lines of undecided voters until you’re blue in the face.

Partisans viewed the recent debates through the prism of their own political preference. We can listen to conservative and liberal pundits declaring victory, but the election will come down to the swing states. We’re sure those undecided voters are ready for the election to end — along with the attack ads.

Ezra Klein, a blogger and columnist for the Washington Post, recently tweeted the following: “If Obama wins the electoral college but loses the popular vote, the fiscal cliff is going to be an insane mess.”

It could get even weirder. Odds for a potential tie in the electoral college aren’t out of the question, according to Business Insider. In that case, it goes to the House of Representatives.

Like everyone else paying attention, we’re ready for the election to be over. And we hope the outcome is determined quickly and painlessly.

We’re ready to end the anxiety of uncertainty and get back to focusing on our local community.

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We all are ready for this presidential election cycle to end

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