Your vote does matter

The day after the election, Bruce Ramsey wrote a spirited defense of not voting based on the fact, he says, that your vote doesn’t really matter. [“Even if you didn’t vote, you still have the right to complain,” Opinion, Nov. 7.]

In the technical sense, both Ramsey and the politicians who say “every vote counts” are right. Yes, every vote is added to the tally that eventually determines who wins and who loses. And yes, even in a close election, your vote alone will not change the winner.

But this is beside the point. None of us casts our ballot in the hopes that our vote will single-handedly determine who the next president or governor will be, nor should we. If a single person could determine who will lead our country, it would not be very democratic. Alone, your voice can’t call the election.

But the truth is that when you vote, it isn’t all about you; it’s about you becoming part of something bigger and greater than yourself. It’s about you and millions of other people all becoming the great American electorate.

And when the electorate speaks, the U.S. listens.

-- Emilia Jones, Seattle

Too much power for one county

The horrible truth is, as goes King County there goes the rest of the state.

Really, there’s no reason for the rest of us to vote after that bunch of liberal's get through [messing] things up for the rest of us. They always get their way.

Here's a great idea. Let's have all them form their own state! Lets take King, Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties and combine them into a state and call it — drum roll ... Washington A/C D/C.

Now they can vote away and get all their ideas out there. The rest of us can elect good people like Rob McKenna to run our state and they can have Jay Inslee do his thing for them.

It would be a win-win situation for all of us and I'd feel like when I vote, it counts.

-- John L. Brooks, Spanaway

Why sweat a tardy count?

Why be in such a hurry to know the outcome of one or two races on the ballot? [“Speed up ballot county,” Opinion, Nov. 9.]

By long-standing tradition we have an "Election Day," and our new added tradition is having mail-in ballots. The simplest way for these traditions to work successfully is the system we have now: Cast your ballot on Election Day and mail it.

Having any other mail-in date will make it more likely that some voters will screw up. Regardless of whose fault that would be, it's better to have the input of more voters.

Have patience, folks. Democracy is messy, even when well-managed.

-- Peter Haley, Seattle

Let White House sink or swim

I have been thinking a lot about what should happen in the next four years and it's apparent to me that in order to fix the economic problems for good, we are going to have to go one direction or another. I think that the Republican-held House should vote for anything the White House asks for. Give President Obama the power to do everything he wants. It will either work or not work but there will be no blame game and the voters will get what they asked for.

If Republicans follow this path to decisions, it will take far less time to find out who's right. The pitfall in this (if it goes wrong) is that many people who have worked hard for where they are will suffer along with those who believe they are right and haven't produced their fair share.

I think this is the only way we can stop the blame game and force the administration to take responsibility for its decisions and actions. If you take the politics out of it, you might see a smarter decision when the blame will land in its lap. The time to fix it is now.

-- Roger Miller, East Wenatchee