Non-US countries have elections?
Well, yeah, but not exactly like the ones you USAmericans have. In most other countries, those who get more votes, actually win the election...
Bush did get the most electoral college votes so he won. You don't understand our election system, I suggest you research it.
Don't forget their are 50 states in the Union and the EC system ensures that the smaller states get a voice in presidental elections just like the 2 senators from each state, regardless of population, is suspose to insure that each state gets it's uniqure issues heard.
Don't forget their are 50 states in the Union and the EC system ensures that the smaller states get a voice in presidental elections just like the 2 senators from each state, regardless of population, is suspose to insure that each state gets it's uniqure issues heard.
The electoral college was originally designed to make sure that the President was selected by the land owners, and not by the mob.
Today's electoral college (which resembles the original electoral college in name only) is used in conjuncti
No, the original restrictions on the voting franchise were intended to make sure that the President was select by property owners. This was, at the time, a reasonable means for determining competence with respect to voting. Today, the electoral college helps balance the interests of larger states' cities and urban centers (such as New York City, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and others) against the interests of rural areas, which are more sparsely populated (cf. Wyoming, Montana, outlying reg
Why? Like many other things in life, just because it affects the US, doesn't automatically mean anyone on earth else gives a great flying shit about it. I could not care less how you elect your C+ average, barely literate, alcoholic, cocaine abusing, drunk driving, deserting, leaders into office. Seeing his resume, it is obvious that almost half of America doesn't either.
Since you seem to understand it, doesn't this mean that "one man, one vote" is a sham? I mean, if the EC ensur
Hi "rest of the world", I hope you get modded up, you are quite funny, but your humor shelters some insightful truths.
First, like it or not, the US is the most powerful nation on the earth, so whoever our president is, it matters to you. Who knows what little country for whatever reason will next get his attention? So you have as much stake in the US Elections as those of us who have the opportunity to vote. In fact, you have as much influence as I do since I don't happen to be one of those 10 people in
He wasn't talking to you. He was talking to the original poster.
But what he said goes for you too, if you're going to make incorrect statements about how the US system works. After all, even if/.ers think differently,/. is news for *nerds*, and I would presume that a nerd would like to know about a topic he posts about.
If you wish to be willfully ignorant and demean a fairly brilliant system by acting as though you have all the answers with no downsides, go ahead.
The only thing the electoral college system does is give a disproportionate number of votes to white southerners. I guess this would be considered a troll according to someone else's post and I don't have time to go into semantics (late for physics lab) but step back and you'll see that it's true.
-Zack
I'm sorry, in my rush to post before class, I forgot to mention the "heartland" too. Generally the old south and a strip up from Texas to Montana. Ditto for all the other posts pointing this out to me. Same demographic with disproportionate votes though.
Seems to me that Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Vermont, New Hampshire, Delaware, DC, North Dakota, Maine (as examples) get way more out of the Electoral College than the Old South does. In general, the Old South has few, if any, low population states (Arkansas and West Virginia are the smallest, I think, and neither is in the bottom 10).
In fact, the Electoral College was part of the compromise introduced to convince small states to retify the Constitution, to avoid being dominated by Virginia.
actually, under a popular vote, the smaller states get a voice still. and in the case of a popular vote, every voice counts, not just the ones from the swing states. you see, in places like florida, ohio, pennsylvania and maybe Michigan (the swing states) are where each and every vote counts. every vote makes the difference between those ec points. you're not going to see rigorous "get out the vote" campaigns in wyoming or vermont where each electoral vote represenets 200,000 people. in places like o
If you count all countries that ban candidates for their political views, Germany, Israel, and France get added to the list too (Germany and France have anti-Neo-Nazi-candidate laws, and Israel has anti-Zionist-extremist-candidate laws).
In fact, any former British Commonwealth country that lack a President (in other words not a republic) doesn't have a basic majority rules system either. You have constituencies, and each constituency votes a representative, and the leader of the party who's got the most seats is Prime Minister. Usually that means there's a dispairity between the votes and the seats, although it's usually close. Canada, Australia, and England are all under this system.
How has the European Community solved this problem? I know from news reports that proper representation of different sized countries has been an issue.
Sure, the US is one country now, but when its Constitution was written, it was simply a confederation of independent states who were sold on the benefits of being one big country without giving up the benefits of being individual political units.
It's been a long time since the US has made major changes to its election law. Since those in power wouldn't ben
well aside from the old reason that the magority of americans were too ignorant to make such important decisions back in post-colonial America, the Electoral College system has helped stabilize elections, such that the only place where contesting vote counts would be even considered would be the most tightly contested states, and even then only if the difference in electoral votes was worth it, without it you would end up with Miami-Dade county in every county in the nation every time an election is close.
Non-US Elections (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:0)
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:5, Funny)
Well, yeah, but not exactly like the ones you USAmericans have. In most other countries, those who get more votes, actually win the election...
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:1, Informative)
Don't forget their are 50 states in the Union and the EC system ensures that the smaller states get a voice in presidental elections just like the 2 senators from each state, regardless of population, is suspose to insure that each state gets it's uniqure issues heard.
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:1, Insightful)
Don't forget their are 50 states in the Union and the EC system ensures that the smaller states get a voice in presidental elections just like the 2 senators from each state, regardless of population, is suspose to insure that each state gets it's uniqure issues heard.
The electoral college was originally designed to make sure that the President was selected by the land owners, and not by the mob.
Today's electoral college (which resembles the original electoral college in name only) is used in conjuncti
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:1)
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:1)
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:2, Interesting)
Why? Like many other things in life, just because it affects the US, doesn't automatically mean anyone on earth else gives a great flying shit about it. I could not care less how you elect your C+ average, barely literate, alcoholic, cocaine abusing, drunk driving, deserting, leaders into office. Seeing his resume, it is obvious that almost half of America doesn't either.
Since you seem to understand it, doesn't this mean that "one man, one vote" is a sham? I mean, if the EC ensur
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:2)
First, like it or not, the US is the most powerful nation on the earth, so whoever our president is, it matters to you. Who knows what little country for whatever reason will next get his attention? So you have as much stake in the US Elections as those of us who have the opportunity to vote. In fact, you have as much influence as I do since I don't happen to be one of those 10 people in
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:1)
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:2)
But what he said goes for you too, if you're going to make incorrect statements about how the US system works. After all, even if
If you wish to be willfully ignorant and demean a fairly brilliant system by acting as though you have all the answers with no downsides, go ahead.
But don't expect those of us that
1) u
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:2)
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:2)
No, you're completely wrong. It also gives a disproportionate number of votes to white midwesterners.
jf
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:2)
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In fact, the Electoral College was part of the compromise introduced to convince small states to retify the Constitution, to avoid being dominated by Virginia.
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:1)
there's plenty of others (Score:2)
If you count all countries that ban candidates for their political views, Germany, Israel, and France get added to the list too (Germany and France have anti-Neo-Nazi-candidate laws, and Israel has anti-Zionist-extremist-candidate laws).
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:2)
In fact, any former British Commonwealth country that lack a President (in other words not a republic) doesn't have a basic majority rules system either. You have constituencies, and each constituency votes a representative, and the leader of the party who's got the most seats is Prime Minister. Usually that means there's a dispairity between the votes and the seats, although it's usually close. Canada, Australia, and England are all under this system.
New Zealand tries to sol
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Re:Non-US Elections (Score:2)
A true testament that US foreign intervention works!
Fa la!
Infidels! (Score:2)
You should really let us Americans show you how to do it right.
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure, the US is one country now, but when its Constitution was written, it was simply a confederation of independent states who were sold on the benefits of being one big country without giving up the benefits of being individual political units.
It's been a long time since the US has made major changes to its election law. Since those in power wouldn't ben
Re:Non-US Elections (Score:2)