How to Win an Election (One Vote at a Time)

Now remember, I have no ill will and I'm not here to give anyone a hard time. This is simply an observation built upon years of experience and faith in our existence. This train really is massive. So massive in fact, that we need to focus on a section of the train many of us call home. America. Now America has several institutions that serve us well and some that don't. But, for the sake of this story they each are represented by a train car. Every distinction you can make, has it's own train car. You can manifest almost any type of train car you need. Kind of like real life. If there's a will, there's a way. Now voting happens on or around an election. Some are every two years, some are every four. Believe it or not there are many processes for our elections. We'll start with the most commonly used. To name a few there are:

First past the post - Where the highest polling candidate wins the election. Two-round system - Where if no candidate receives a majority of votes, then there is a runoff between the two highest polling candidates. Instant runoff voting -Voters rank the candidates in order of preference rather than voting for a single candidate. Under this system, if no candidate achieves more than half of votes cast, then the lowest polling candidate is eliminated, and his or her votes are distributed to the next preferred candidates. This process continues until one candidate achieves more than half the votes. Non-partisan blanket primary - In 2016, Maine became the first state to adopt instant-runoff voting (known in the state as ranked-choice voting) statewide for its elections, although due to state constitutional provisions, the system is only used for federal elections and state primaries. Louisiana primary (jungle primary) - In the United States, the system is often called a jungle or nonpartisan primary. It is used to elect most public officials in Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, California, and Washington, with a variant in Alaska using a ranked-choice runoff between 4 candidates. Nonpartisan blanket primary and top four instant run off general - This one specifically, is for Alaska. It's a modified version of the non-partisan blanket primary. See folks? there are a lot of ways to run an election. Now, I'm going to teach you how you can ruin one. This is no laughing matter, but i'll try my best to keep it lighthearted. There are some things everyone can agree on. This seems to be one of those things. I do aim to entertain, enlighten, and deliver. So relax and enjoy the ride for now. Let me tell you about my breakfast for a moment. I like to keep it simple. It was eggs. I ate it in a lettuce leaf so there wouldn't be extra dishes. I could have put corn salsa on it, which I sometimes do. However, in my quest to remain healthy the Lord reminded me "Corn isn't that important, and besides a few nutrients, it's just a shell". Hmmm. It's just a shell. You know, in the animal kingdom shells are sometimes used for camouflage. Well I do believe I'll refer to Jesus on this one. Now, I'm the writer, the observer, the follower of Jesus Christ. From time to time I will speak up for Jesus. His voice is plenty loud, I'm just honored to speak up for him. I'll let you in on what he says, messages going forward (he is the conductor of this train after all), and any points of interest he'd like to share along the way. Jesus wants everyone to be wary about Shell Companies. Shell Companies that give money to super PACs could be conduits for foreign money in our elections. If that isn't bad enough listen to this. Every year hundreds of PACs make donations off the books as independent expenditures. That means we don't know who spent it, or what they spent it on. These PACs are required to reveal their backers, but are able to hide the true source of funding by reporting a non-disclosing nonprofit or Shell Company as the donor. By using this tactic, groups can get around a recent court ruling that attempts to require nonprofits running political ads to reveal their donors. And it gets much worse than that. You see foreign issues reign supreme in our economics. It's just a fact of doing business with these countries. And believe me, it's a two way street. (let's keep our hands in our pockets shall we?) Foreign relations seem to wane when we allow a lot of these Shell Companies to dominate this landscape. That should tell everyone that the people with all the money don't neccesarily have our best interest at heart. Nationally or internationally. These are issues that need to be funded by citizens, Americans either here or abroad. We don't want Shell Companies being the major players in these PACs. It really isn't helping anything. It's making it worse and taking the power of influence away from the people it deserves. You read that right. It might sound confusing. The power of influence deserves people that are committed to the cause. In theory I suppose. Look PACs really aren't that great to begin with but letting Shell Companies run the landscape is terrible news for you and me. Now if you'd like to help support something I believe in, here it is. H.R.988 - Shell Company Abuse Act It's been introduced under similar titles to the House Committee. The House of Representatives number might change, but it shouldn't be too hard to find if it's reintroduced again. It usually retains this exact name/title. Now this is bipartisan. Issueone.org even did some great reporting and found dozens of both republican an democrat leaning PACs, which it was able to use to "illustrate a broken campaign finance system that allows deep-pocketed donors to remain anonymous and avoid scrutiny." Go ahead and look this stuff up folks, it's food for thought. Lots of nutrients. I think i've given you plenty to think about for now. Of course things go much deeper but that isn't our goal. Unity is. One nation. Let's make sure everyone on this train is excited for what comes next. So put on your thinking caps, take some ginkgo biloba or whatever helps you study. I like a nice tea or coffee myself. Reach out to your neighbors about this issue and explain to them, it helps everybody and keeps things fair. Acts like this should easily garner support and become laws. This could have passed 8 years ago, and it was the same wording. I'm not sure why some things just die in the House Committee but I intend to find out more about it. For my next piece, look for something a little more creative and light hearted. Perhaps a "hit piece". To be fair though, a hit piece to me can be a hard hitting expose. I like to attack the behavior I can't stand. Now don't worry, I'll be nice. This should be something we all can agree on. No one's getting called out, Jesus says being a tattletale is kind of annoying. If you see something, say something. That's all it takes. Don't put yourself in harm's way, and don't worry about petty crimes. God forgives and judges. He does it all the time.