An editorial here two weeks ago said that the County Council should do a thorough analysis before turning responsibility for the county jail over to the sheriff’s office.
That’s right, and I know where to start.
Start by finding out why the county decided to take responsibility for the jail away from the sheriff 30 or 40 years ago.
Yes, the jail was once the responsibility of the sheriff.
In the 1960s, a sheriff’s appointments included a jailer.
Somewhere, the writers of the county charter or some council members decided to take responsibility for the jail away from the sheriff. Someone should find out the reasons and determine if they’re still valid.
Election review: Nebraska’s split electoral vote
Nebraska’s five electoral votes went four to John McCain and one to Barack Obama.
That’s because Nebraska is one of only two states whose laws allow divided electoral votes. Nebraska gives two of its electoral votes to the candidate who wins the state popular vote and the other three to the winners of the presidential vote in each congressional district. Even though the Obama campaign knew it had little chance to win the state, it successfully put resources into the district in eastern Nebraska where it knew it could compete.
If our state had used such a system, Obama would have won nine of Washington’s electoral votes rather than all eleven. Obama easily would have won the statewide vote and six of the congressional districts. He also would have won the 8th District, but that district would have been competitive enough that both parties would have advertised in the Seattle market, and, while Obama certainly would have lost the 4th District (Central Washington), he would have made the 5th District (Eastern Washington) competitive enough to bring advertising to the Spokane market.
Why can Nebraska divide its vote? The U.S. Constitution says, “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.”
If Florida had used Nebraska’s system in the disputed election of eight years ago, the dispute would have been over the electoral vote of that one district rather than over all of that state’s 25 electoral votes.
I’d like our state to allocate its electoral votes, not by district but by proportion of the statewide vote, one electoral vote for each 9 percent of the statewide vote. This year, that would have meant six votes for Obama and five for McCain, but with a little more work Obama could have made it 7-4. Washington and most other states get ignored because they are clearly red or clearly blue, but a proportional system would bring us definite attention, as candidates would work for every vote.
Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor. Send comments to entopinion@heraldnet.com.
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