270. Leica/Lumix Macro-Elmarit 45mm

Overlaying the U.S. Presidential Election being held today, is an arcane procedural process dating from 1787 called The Electoral College.  Instead of the election being a one-person-one-vote popular vote, an exercise of simple democracy, the Electoral College puts its thumb on the scale in a corrupted attempt to level the playing field between large, populous states, and small, sparsely populated ones.  At least, that’s the theory. It’s an institution in the 21st Century akin to the human appendix: perhaps useful once a very long time ago, but now, sitting there quietly waiting to become infected, and needing surgical intervention.  The net effect for the presidential candidates in the race, is a winner-takes-all for each state.  Some states have a history of voting sometimes Republican, and others Democratic - so-called Swing States.  So, depending how much time, money and effort the candidates throw at campaigning in a particular state, if victorious, that person will score the Electoral College votes  allotted for that state.  The candidate who collects 270 votes first, has won the election, irrespective of whether they won the popular vote or not.  It’s far beyond the scope of this forum, and even farther beyond my knowledge as a constitutional scholar to explain its further machinations here. However,  Anthony Zurcher, the BBC correspondent who covers U.S. affairs most comprehensively, has written a succinct breakdown of the election https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm276e04z77o here.  It boils down to this:  There are three so-called Blue Wall states, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which Kamala Harris must win to prevail.  The Republican Red Wall is North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.  So, Pennsylvania and its 19 Electoral College votes is vitally important to this election. 
On Sunday last, the Republican candidate held a Nazi-style rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden, during which a supporting cast “comedian” saw fit to refer to Puerto Rican immigrants and their home country as “garbage”.  They’re not happy.  There is a population of about 300,000 Puerto Ricans who live in Pennsylvania.  Joe Biden won Pennsylvania in 2020 by a mere 80,000 votes.  It’s the single most exciting indicator, - along with many, many women angered at the Supreme Court Dobbs decision -, we’ve had in the last few days as to how this awful election may play out.
For the purposes of the Blip, I used the engraved calibrations on a Starrett rule to express the winning Electoral College vote count in millimeters.  The image is overlayed on a map of Pennsylvania photographed from my grandfather’s Collins World Atlas published between the two World Wars.
Wikipedia has provided background guidance about The Electoral College.