It's not a horse race

It's been several years since I've been to the track, but I still remember how it's done.

First, you pore over the Racing Form. You study each horse, you study each jockey. You watch the horses parade around the track. You try to figure out which horse will cross the finish line first.

You go to the window and make your prediction (place your bet). If you guess right, you win--you get your money back plus extra. If you guess wrong, you lose--you've lost whatever money you've placed on "your" horse.

November 2 we have an election coming up. It's not a horse race. The idea is to tell the public who YOU choose to be our leader, not to predict who the winner will be.

Let's look at some examples.

You have a group of 10 people who need to choose a leader. You have three choices: A, B and C. You favor C. Three people vote for A, three people vote for B and three people vote for C. It is now up to you to decide you the new leader will be. Up until now the polls have said only A and B have a realistic chance of winning. Do you vote for A or B or do you vote for C? Regardless of what the polls said, if you vote for C, you will get the candidate of your choice. If you vote for either A or B, you don't. You had the power to put the best candidate in office, but you chose not to because you confused the election with a horse race and tried to predict the winner.

Take another group of 10 people. They also have three choices: D, E and F. You favor F. Six people vote for D, and three for E. Your vote no longer matters. If you vote for D, the score will be seven to three, making D believe he has a clear mandate for his views--not what you intended. If you vote for E, the score will be six to four, not as clear a mandate. The only thing those numbers show is that nobody cares about F--again, not what you intended. If you vote for F, at least your voice will be heard.

One more group. The choices are G, H and I. You favor I. In this particular group, five people favor G, three people favor H, and only you and one other person favor I. The polls are predicting a landslide victory for G. Since "everybody knows" G is going to win, four of those five people don't even bother to vote, and neither do two of the three who favor H. Of course, since those who like I are idealistic, both of them go to the polls. Final score? G - one vote, H - one vote, I - two votes.

In a horse race you win when you correctly guess which horse comes in first. In an election, you win when you vote your conscience.