heh...how the times change

while waiting for things to start, i caught the CBS election update (yes, i did my civic duty after work) and after the last presidential election, they changed their wording in the current results.

rather than saying that someone has won, it was "CBS estimates that {insert person} has won"

NPR was talking about this a bit tonight as well about how the media used to hire companies to run exit polls (none at my polling station) and how there were leaks and blogs were spreading exit poll information, but this year, exit polls were being closely guarded and only just beginning to come out (5pm).

NPR also said that they were not using exit polls, but instead results as reported by AP and their own analysts. so we shall see.

and just how much was spent on this years elections? last number i heard was $1.4 BILLION. so much for the little guy getting into politics to try and make a change. i'm all in favor of that election reform thing. i say give candidates a $5 million ceiling, and if you spend a penny more, you automatically lose the election. spend the money any way you like, but all competitors get the same amount of money.

now, for small scale elections (mayor, etc), no need to give them that high a number, but for the large scale elections (governor, senator) go to the $5M. presidential election, $25M total. they get the exception, but the moment they spend a penny more than the $25M, the candidate in question has to pay a $500k fine per $1 over. no appeals. all receipts are kept and anything that does not add up properly results in an automatic $50k fine per discprepancy.

unfortunately, this is just an idea i have, plus there are countless issues that need to be addressed, but at least you get an idea of what pretends to rattle around in this head of mine. and this is prolly the most political blog entry i've done in a while. won't be ones this political for a while most likely.