6 (potentially) Useless Facts for the November 6th Elections

Because useless is what we do best, this post is long overdue. The original title of this was "10 Things You May or May Not Know About Today's Election" but I ran out of patience and useless (enough) facts so I sneakily renamed it to the above. Nevertheless, here you go-

1. The elections have been held on Tuesdays since 1845, when voters used the Monday to get to the voting stations by horse and carriage.
2. Even if Obama wins a majority of the votes, Romney can still win the title of President and vice versa. In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote but Bush won the electoral vote (there was a huge mess with Florida). Wikipedia explains this fairly simply:
   In the United States, each state conducts its own popular election for President and Vice President. However, the voters are actually voting for a slate of "electors", each of whom pledged to vote for a particular candidate for each office. Most states, including Florida, award all electoral votes to the candidate for either office who receives a plurality of the state's popular vote. Any candidate who then receives an absolute majority of all electoral votes nationally (270 since 1963) wins the Presidential or Vice Presidential election.
   
3. As of yesterday, President Obama had 0.4% advantage over Romney.
4. In the crucial swing state of Ohio itself, with 18 electoral votes up for grabs, Obama and Romney’s combined expenditure on advertisement and campaigning have reached roundabouts $144 million- far more than the GDPs of Afghanistan, Nepal, Ethiopia, Kenya and Libya combined (as diligently calculated by yours truly).
5. Thomas Nast has been credited with designing both the Republican Elephant and the Democratic Donkey. He is also credited with popularizing Uncle Sam, the bearded man that every history student is so familiar with.
   
   
6. If Obama wins this term, it is the last term he will ever be able to serve as President of the United States. If he does win, he will be the third president to win two terms consecutively in the last 50 years. The law for number of times one can be elected got changed after Roosevelt won four times in a row. 

And because I'm in a good mood- BONUS FACT: The next time both the Chinese and the American leadership will be handed over together won't be for another 20 years. 

-Lassie