Election Night Projections

I wrote this at 8:35 p.m. on Election Day, less than one hour after voting. I really wonder why I did, for I have just heard the concession speech of Gov. Michael Dukakis and wondered why I bothered to vote, except I always felt it was the thing to do and was raised to believe my vote mattered. But it really doesn’t!

Is it the geography of California in our television age which renders my vote obsolete before it is even counted? And Hawaii must feel even more unimportant.

I offer no answer, only an anguish. Are we to be, in effect, disenfranchised by time zones or are we truly, as I suspect, in some strange video arcade where it is all a game?

Understand this: My concern arises not over the outcome, but that the outcome comes without me and that my vote in California has been rendered unimportant. The instant gratification of our electronic age has taken away the gratification of feeling involved or being heard.

JIM HARDER

Fountain Valley