If you were paying attention to Presidential politics this week, you saw that my little corner of the world received quite a bit of attention. All of the candidates were in the state this month, and there was much discussion in the national media Tuesday night of our now famous vote-by-mail system. Although that name is just a tad misleading. Yes, you can put a stamp on it and send it in, but you can also drop your ballot off at just about any public building (I always take mine to the library) over the course of about a month. This is all so incredibly logical and convenient that it’s no wonder we are the only state in the union to implement this kind of system.

The saddest thing I heard in all of the coverage I was watching was when Wolf Blitzer said something like ‘Yes, they really have vote-counting down to a science in Oregon.’ Implying, I guess, that in other parts of the country, vote-counting has yet to achieve scientific accuracy. There’s a comforting thought.

But this primary election did not really mean much to me, as I am not a Democrat, and therefore did not cast a vote for President on this ballot. Except that my sister lives in Kentucky, so it felt almost like a sibling rivalry. Although I have no idea (and am not all that interested in) how she voted.

The real news was that I was able to help overwhelmingly elect an openly gay mayor. Like anyplace, Portland has its downsides, but those are far outweighed by the things that are really good here, like the incredible vegan culture, the large percentage of the unchurched, or the lack of homophobia.

But back to VBM. There is one more thing about the vote-by-mail system that had a real influence on the media coverage. Because we have no polling places, the major news outlets were unable to do any exit polls. And so, even though they all ‘knew’ that Barack Obama was going to win, many of them refrained from calling the election for him until most of the official results (the actual votes) were in. What a refreshing change.

For a long time, it has been exit polls which have determined the ‘results’ that media outlets show you on election night. But in an election, isn’t there only one poll that matters? This is yet another case against the gatekeeper media and yet another sign of their dwindling necessity. Why should I look to CNN or MSNBC for election results when the government has many means of giving this information directly to me? With websites, instant messaging, email, and services like Twitter, who needs CNN and their stupid (and often inaccurate) exit polls? (This is assuming that the counting process is open, transparent and honest, which may or may not be the case.)

For that matter, why are any results being reported on the same day as the election? Why not finish counting all the ballots, and then report the conclusive results all together the next morning? That would solve the old problem of people not going to vote because the news outlets have already called the election. And it would also deflate most of the fake urgency that political pundits and the corporate media ascribe to what is primarily a civic process, not an over-hyped, American-Idol-esque contest between celebrity champions.

I also continue to stand by my earlier assertions that all national elections ought to be held together, on the same day (not state by state), and that the entire process ought not to take more than three months. And while we’re at it, we ought to do away with political parties, delegates, superdelegates, caucuses, primaries and conventions, and just vote for whomever we wish to vote for. No muss, no fuss. Is it any wonder that we seem to have so much trouble counting votes when there are these arcane and anti-democratic hoops that we all have to jump through every time we have an election?

Neither elections nor democracy are rocket science, and counting is something that we teach toddlers.

The other, under-reported news from Tuesday was that Ron Paul won something like fifteen percent of the Republican primary. Not that I want the guy to be President, mind you, but it’s nice to see that there is still some electoral independence left in our increasingly homogenous world.