to bad voting really doesn't matter unless you live in certain counties within Ohio.

Is this true? One of my former students just told me this (my son). Does your vote really doesn't matter unless you live in certain swing states? Mathematically, yes. In 2004, Bush won the electoral college vote on the basis of 130,000 votes in Ohio, which gave him all the electoral votes from Ohio. So the 3 million votes Bush won over Kerry (who remains a "douchebag" as they say in France....this is from SNL skit....) didnh't matter: the 2004 race was decided by those 130,000 republicans from Ohio.

Will you be allowed to vote? On slippery rock univ campus, students registered to vote but some put down wrong address: their address decides if they live in the borough, or in the township. Part of the campus in on the borough, the rest on the township.
so students may show up at the wrong polling place. Some students put down their dorm address, but also included the univ address as a permanent address - this means they claim to live in the township but live permanently in the borough.....which means the polling judges might tell them "figure out where you live next election, and then we'll let you vote..."

Then it depends if your vote will be counted: don't forget, in pittsburgh, they still use those big metal vote machines that operate with computer cards (the kind of cards they used back in the 50's and 60's). If your chad is hanging, or just dimpled, your vote won't count.

So even if you register to vote, show up on election day, you might be denied the right to vote or have your vote thrown out.

Or, there may not be enough voting machines at your polling place, so you might have to stand in line for hours, in some cases in Ohio in 2004, 3 - 5 hrs. Oddly enough ( ! ) there were too few voting machines in heavily democratic polling places in Ohio in 2004, because the Republican secretary of state ordered too few (oops! My mistake! Sorry we can't hold the election again....)

And then there is the Ohio case: If Pennsylvania goes to McCain, he has a chance of winning. Ohio is a swing state too. As are 1 or 2 counties in Maine: Obama is ahead in Maine,but Maine/'s electoral votes are awarded on the congressional district plan, not winner take all. So McCain can lose Maine, but still win one of their congressional districts, so he would get one electoral vote.

What happens if it comes down to one congressional district in maine? then your vote only counted if you lived in that one congressional district.

And THIS is why some political scientists go into mathematics and game theory - because votes only count under certain conditions in certain places.

Everyone clear now? So be sure to vote on election day, if you live in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or in one county in Maine!