USA Elections

[domcoppinger]

I believe that the problem with dead people voting many comes from absentee ballots.

The large problem being is how you verify that someone who votes by absentee is alive!

Also Absentee Ballot has come under criticism because of allegations of people coercing large groups of Absentee Ballots or by having Absentee Ballots in multiple states...

However I know very little on the topic, so if I am indeed wrong feel free to correct me!

(Ohh and you do have to question just how much it matters when the entire vote is little more than a recommendation for 538 people out of 311,591,917 to decide the next president!)

[Hullu Hevonen]

I believe that the problem with dead people voting many comes from absentee ballots.

The large problem being is how you verify that someone who votes by absentee is alive!

Also Absentee Ballot has come under criticism because of allegations of people coercing large groups of Absentee Ballots or by having Absentee Ballots in multiple states...

However I know very little on the topic, so if I am indeed wrong feel free to correct me!

(Ohh and you do have to question just how much it matters when the entire vote is little more than a recommendation for 538 people out of 311,591,917 to decide the next president!)

Don't you have any 'population register'?

who are those 538 people, delegates that the candidate gets from a certain state?

[fool]

Census every ten years. But that's a fair bit of time to change.

[Chesehead]

Dead voters and Europeans always vote democrat. The voter ID laws are left up to the states, so some states have easier registrations compared to others. Of course, for some reason the Dems always fight any voter ID law that comes along in Wisconsin, where you would *gasp* show an ID the day you vote in order to vote for president. A common tactic is to go into some rough neighboorhoods, offer some random people on the streets cash to get into a van, and then drive then to 5-10 different polling stations with-in a City.


The 538 people are part of the Electoral college. Fun fact- They don't have to vote for whoever has the most votes in their state, but as far as I know, this has never happened. Few people actually understand the system, but it does have its advatages.

[tofofnts]

Dead voters and Europeans always vote democrat. The voter ID laws are left up to the states, so some states have easier registrations compared to others. Of course, for some reason the Dems always fight any voter ID law that comes along in Wisconsin, where you would *gasp* show an ID the day you vote in order to vote for president. A common tactic is to go into some rough neighboorhoods, offer some random people on the streets cash to get into a van, and then drive then to 5-10 different polling stations with-in a City.


The 538 people are part of the Electoral college. Fun fact- They don't have to vote for whoever has the most votes in their state, but as far as I know, this has never happened. Few people actually understand the system, but it does have its advatages.

Actually quite a few times they didn't vote for the one who was selected, but it never swung an election (what I just said was completely stolen from YouTube.com/cgpgrey)

[domcoppinger]

Actually... Well yes Tofofnts you are correct, most recently in the 2000 election a member of the electoral college refused to vote for Al Gore and actually abstained from voting, when she was meant to vote (based off the popular vote, otherwise known as the public vote) for Al Gore, however this one vote wouldn't have changed anything...

However the really really weird part of the electoral college is the fact that America can have a president that wins the majority of the public vote, yet loses the presidential election...

This is because of the weightings of the Electoral College which give a certain number of votes to each State. However the way the system works the number of people to electoral votes actually varies from state to state. For example:

In Utah they have 1 electoral vote for every 154 150.8 people.
In Wyoming they have 1 electoral vote for every 72 666.6667 people.
In Texas they have 1 electoral vote for every 200 238.656 people.

*All this data is taken from the 2000 Election results and therefore also the distribution of electoral votes at that time*

In fact in the 2000 election Al Gore managed to receive 48.38% of the popular vote, George W. Bush however received 47.87% of the vote. When the results were converted into electoral votes bush received 271, Al Gore 266 (This is minus the one abstention I mentioned earlier!) So Bush won the election and the peoples choice, Al Gore, lost. And the rest is, as they say, history!

[tofofnts]

http://www.youtube.com/user/CGPGrey?ob=0 has a lot of great explanations

[fool]

So basically, a statewide system for selecting the union-wide president is a stupid idea. Big surprise. Even if all the weightings were equal, the system would still be flawed (does it make any distinction between winning 50.001% of the vote in a state and winning 90%?)

[tofofnts]

(does it make any distinction between winning 50.001% of the vote in a state and winning 90%?)

No, unless your in Nebraska and Maine, also you can win a two party race with just 22% of the popular vote


Sources= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC42HgL ... ature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUS9mM8X ... re=related

[fool]

We have a similar problem in the UK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kin ... 10#Results

[Chesehead]

The electoral college makes states with little amounts of people still important. Case in point is Wyoming. If the election was purely on electoral college vote, nobody would care and they'd never get any campain visits. Since they have a fair shair of electoral votes, it now becomes relevent and canidates will pay attention to the state. (Even though it's pretty much nothingness)

[fool]

Why should irrelevant states be given the priority over people? There are cities with populations greater than that of Wyoming that also don't receive visits. Surely that's just as unfair on them? Why should Wyoming get special treatment?

[tofofnts]

Why should irrelevant states be given the priority over people? There are cities with populations greater than that of Wyoming that also don't receive visits. Surely that's just as unfair on them? Why should Wyoming get special treatment?

Because the electoral college is messed up. The reason Americans have the system is the same reason Americans have pennies (On the subject of pennies) because they are to scared of the idea of a new system.

[domcoppinger]

Actually, as far as I am aware, whenever a change from the electoral system to a direct vote has been surveyed the results have always shown that the American people would favour a direct vote. However the problem with this is for it to be changed the politicians would need to vote to change it, and they don't mind it how it is... So until it becomes an "important" issue which then forces the politicians to addressed it, a change in the system won't even be discussed where it matters!

Although I agree the Penny should go!

[CrazyIvan]

The entire point of the Electoral College is that the States, not the entire nation, elects the President. Sure, you may not agree with that, but that was the entire point of it in the first place.