What the Election Won't Settle

What the Election Won't Settle

I'm reminding all my friends here in Denver not to believe their vote is worthless. Our swing state’s nine electoral votes could hand the presidency to Romney or Obama -- and the Colorado outcome in 2012 could turn on a few hundred ballots, much like the Florida outcome in 2000.

Historians point out that within months of achieving statehood in 1876, Colorado with its measly three electoral tipped the presidential election for Rutherford B. Hayes. Yet the dominant issue of that era, equal rights for former black slaves, wasn’t settled by the election. It troubled the American conscience for almost...