We've just been through a national election here in Canada and one thing you learn is that your vote works in mysterious ways. We vote for a local representative to Parliament. We do not vote for Parliament and we do not vote for the government. The local representatives show up after election in Parliament and they figure out who government will be - kinda.

In the US, it is different. You vote for a whole bunch of things at one time - local state and national representatives, local officers like judges and deputy dog catchers as well as the President. Well you kind of vote for the President as your vote really is for the slate of representatives to your state's representatives to the Electoral College which pricks the President. Kinda.

Make sense? No? Well never mind because through the power of the internet, we have a widget, an automatic Electoral College guess-o-matic called the Electoral College Predictor 2004 - I like guess-o-matic better for a name but that's just me. Here is its prediction as of 22 July 2004:

Whether you are for one or the other, this is the mechanism of how the next US President is actually elected. Hey...I thought it was a close race? Ummm...if blue is Kerry and red is Bush...then...it's 332 to 195 for Kerry. Depth of colour indicates a state's depth of committment - Tennessee is tied.