Photo by Vectorportal, Flickr

In a few days, 240 million American voters will be invited to go to the polls in their respective states to elect their president.

The citizens of the United States of America will make their choice amid a most confused atmosphere, thanks to a slew of advertisements. Those who are not yet under the spell of an increasing and world-wide cynicism will have a tough time resisting it.

Although the name United States of America evokes a regrouping of states united for the common good, and suggests a measure of equality, the reality is quite different. When the time comes to choose the next tenant of the White House, some states carry a lot more weight than others.
In fact, just a handful of them hold the balance of power.

We think here, of course, of Florida and New York, California and Texas, states that represent over a quarter of the Electoral College. These are determining places. Because, let’s not forget, whether it’s Barack Obama or Mitt Romney who gets the most votes is irrelevant. What they must do in order to grab the victory is to attain the magic number 270, the number of electors from the Electoral College required to claim majority.

This system has been implemented from the American Constitution by the United States’ Founding Fathers in order to reach a compromise between a President chosen by Congress and the one the people favor. They chose a system that highlights both.

Results in at least two of these great states are a given. California will vote for Obama and Texas for Romney. The State of New York will probably go for Obama. His management performance during Hurricane Sandy will serve him well. As for Florida, time will tell.

Still, many observers think that Ohio, with its 18 electors, could readily decide on the fate of the next president. This state has done so in the past 11 presidential races. Its electors are particularly fussed over during electoral campaigns. Judging by the explosion of advertising expenses in this state, stakes are high. We can only surmise that its citizens must be fed up with those ads constantly bombarding them.

Imagine for a moment a provincial electoral campaign during which the two main candidates would hog the airwaves. I know that we have our share of electoral ads during campaigns, but we are a far cry from coming anywhere near the ongoing assault of publicity our neighbors down south have to contend with.

Let’s take Ohio as an example. It is said that in the last month alone, 58,000 ads were aired. At 30 seconds each, this means that a single station would have showed nothing but political ads for 20 straight days.

The cost of this seduction campaign: 128 million dollars, apparently. On the national scene, the obscenity of it all is magnified by some 915,000 ads, according to the Wesleyan Media Project.

Some will see signs of a healthy democracy in this. I, for one, see a more disquieting side – the near indecent financial health of American political parties.

Translation Monique Kroeger