Yesterday the Minnesota Supreme Court finally declared Al Franken the winner of the Minnesota Senate seat over incumbent Norm Coleman.

While its frustrating to me to watch a character like Al Franken be elected to the Senate to take a seat next to all the other clowns we already have in Washington (both Republican and Democrat), the drama that’s played out over the last several months reveals one thing to me.

The system we have in place to cast and count votes is broken!

And I don’t just say this because Franken won.

As the voting public, we have this inherent expectation that when we vote, the votes will be counted accurately and the winner will be declared with a high amount of certainty.  Ideally, a recount of the votes would return the exact same results as the initial count, and it’s clear that this doesn’t happen.  Remember, Coleman was declared the winner of a tight race until Franken legitimately demanded a recount that resulted in a very different outcome.

In an age where I can order merchandise over a secure website, access my bank account from anywhere in the world with a feeling of security, it bothers me that many places in our country are still using paper ballots to cast votes and human beings to count them.

In the end, I think Minnesota got the Senate representative they deserve, and maybe Franken will step in and shed some light on how comedic and corrupt our government is.

The only thing we can do now is watch the fallout and hope that technology will lend a hand in our political system.

Politics Al Franken, Norm Coleman, Senate, voting

An easy way to fix our political system? Vote more. Not for people, but for issues.

If we voted on issues at the federal level rather than just for people, would our government get more done? From my standpoint, people have become so removed from the political system due to the fact that we elect people to make decisions and vote on our behalf. The problem is that most people don’t trust that their elected officials will represent them based on their own beliefs. After all, when was the last time my representative called me up and said: “Hey Grant, what do you think about abortion? What do you think about immigration?” Yeah, never. Not even once. If he/she doesn’t know where I stand on the issues, why would I believe he/she actually reflects my views in the government?

If the major issues came up for a vote, people with a vested interest would be more inclined to take part. No longer would we question the results of a vote based on financial influence in congress.

Kind of an off the cuff rant as I watch the results “roll in” as I reflect on just how much I really don’t care any more.

Just a theory, what do you think?

Politics elections, Politics, Super Tuesday, voting