I'm pretty sick and tired of hearing people say their vote doesn't matter.

Oh, I understand the Electoral College and I know all about its inherent flaws.  I grew up in Utah, a state with exactly the same number of electoral votes as Alaska.  Believe me, I understand the frustration small states feel because none of the candidates seem to notice them.  Likewise I know how it feels when your state is always the same color every four years.

But I've never felt like my vote doesn't matter.

If you follow the logic of most people who complain that their votes don't count, it seems to me as if they are saying that the only votes that do count are those cast for the winner--and that just sounds like poor loosing to me.

Your vote counts.  Any vote.  A vote for the Republican counts just as much as a vote for the Democratic, or a third party candidate, or even Mickey Mouse.  The vote counts because it's yours.

People fought and died for that vote; other people are still fighting and dieing to obtain a similar right.

I know the system is often confusing and imperfect, but what does that matter?  Not voting isn't going to change that.  And who cares if your candidate doesn't win, you've gotten to vote--to voice your opinion--and that's a right very few people in this world have.

And don't try to tell me that Alaska doesn't matter.

It's true that neither of the major candidates for president have graced our state with their illustrious presence, but president isn't the only office up for grabs this election.

I don't know if you've noticed, but there is a lot of national money being pumped into Alaska right now.  Hence all the ads paid for by the Democratic and Republican National Committees.  Our out-the-way state is the center of the political world as far as the Senate is concerned. 

We are smack dab in the middle of one of the most important, one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country.  An Associated Press story on Thursday reports that Murkowski "is the only sitting Republican in the Senate at risk of losing--a vulnerability that could topple the GOP's slight majority in the chamber."

The two major parties both know how important Alaska is this election year.  If they didn't, they wouldn't be spending their money here, believe me.  Both parties fight viscously to have the majority in the House or the Senate (or better yet, both). The minority is always looking for weak links in the majority's chain, and nowhere is the majority's hold more tenuous, according to the AP, than in Alaska, especially considering most voters in this state are registered as independent or nonpartisan.

With our two-party system, majority is very important in the Senate; only majority members can chair committees and hold other key positions.  In other words, the majority's agenda is usually considered first. 

The Senate is powerful--as powerful, if not more so, than the president.  And whether you want to ensure that the Republicans keep their precious majority or are overturned by the Democrats, we here in Alaska (you know, that state whose votes don't count) have the power and the opportunity to shape the very landscape of the Senate floor, and hence the political dynamics of this country. 

But, hey, you're vote doesn't matter, remember?

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