American Presidential Election 101

[mindspell]

Something was mentionned on CNN last night that I am not sure I understood, and I want to make sure I understand correctly:

-Electoral votes are given on a state to state basis, meaning that one state does not have the same legislation as to how they give their electoral votes. Right?

-It is the popular vote in each state that determines the winner or that state and to whom the electoral votes are given out to. It is not a matter of whom wins out the most county or anything like that right?

-Some states can split electoral votes? How does the split come forward? How are the votes split exactly? 50-50?

-There was this thing in Missouri where they said that if the Democrats had more than 6% over the Republicans in the St-Louis County they won the state anyhow?!? Did I misunderstand something?

 

[0sm0se]

Electoral votes generally go with the popular vote in a state but are not required to. The committee that handles the electoral votes can just say "Fuck the Populace" and vote for whoever they see fit. Making it a difficult job this election, I wouldn't let either of these guys clean my bathroom, let alone run the country.

 

[deadair]

...actually, i'd love to see both of them cleaning my house.

 

[lizard]

that would be kind of funny. But let Bush do the yardwork, because he's already got all that experience clearing brush on his "ranch"

 

[deadair]

true. i need someone to cut the lawn and shit.

 

[goatschool]

the St Louis thing, i believe, is correct. 6% lead applies to any candidate.

 

[avi]

I was trying to explain the electoral college system to my wife last night and she was freaking out about it
"It doesn't make sense!"
"tell me about it!"

 

[deadair]

avi, i think me and my wife had the same conversation.

 

[avi]

soooo kerry conceding. wonderful.

 

[deadair]

meh, what else can he do? he doesn't want to look like gore... esp. because he lost by both, gore at least had the pop. vote.

 

[avi]

he can try to tough it out to the end rather than retreating like a pansy. the american left doesn't know how to fight.

 

[Demonspell]

As much as I hate to assign blame to the left, if Kerry and his party had been more decisive and shown willingness to nail Bush to the wall on every last misgiving of his administration, we might not be spending this morning nursing our post-election hangovers...

 

[FrostGiant]

I voted for Badnarik.

 

[Josh Seipp]

As much as I hate to assign blame to the left, if Kerry and his party had been more decisive and shown willingness to nail Bush to the wall on every last misgiving of his administration, we might not be spending this morning nursing our post-election hangovers...

yes

 

[azal]

I was watching election coverage when I got home after work, but then after 5 minutes I opted for this gonzo style porn featuring 50 year old British women instead.

 

[xfer]

Mindspell:

States that split their electoral votes do it one of two ways. The first way is to split the votes by percentage (ie, my 10 electoral votes, 70% of the state goes to Kerry, so he gets 7 votes and Bush gets 3). I actually think that since Colorado's measure got defeated, nobody does that currently.

The second way is to assign each Congressional district one electoral vote and however the district votes, so goes its electoral vote. This is hideously undemocratic and evil.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean about St. Louis by the wording, but I'm guessing they meant that St. Louis county is so populous, if the Democrats had won it by 6% or more, it would be enough to carry the whole state's popular votes (and thus electoral votes, since Missouri isn't a splitter).

The electoral college makes sense and, if applied right, is a much fairer proposition. I don't want a voting system dumbed down so it's understandable by retarded fourth-graders at the expense of being less fair. I just despise how the electoral system is misapplied to give the South so much weight.

 

[xfer]

I think Demonspell (and Josh) are pretty much wrong. Kerry (and the Dems) doesn't deserve the primary blame for this; in fact, neither does Bush (although his peeps get secondary blame).

Primary blame falls on the American electorate. Kerry DID attack Bush stridently, and nobody paid attention (and then went around posting "Why isn't Kerry being more forceful!?"). Kerry put forth a logically consistant and thoughtful position and everybody ignored it (and then went around posting "If Kerry wasn't such a flip-flopper...!"). I think Kerry made strategic mistakes and even ideological mistakes, but there is a very clear villain here, and I want to make sure the blame falls on Them instead of on Kerry.

 

[xfer]

also, 0sm0se's assessment of how the electoral votes are given out is a big exaggeration...if an elector ever did change an election by voting against how he was instructed to, the result would almost certainly be reversed by litigation.

 

[The Dope]

also, 0sm0se's assessment of how the electoral votes are given out is a big exaggeration...if an elector ever did change an election by voting against how he was instructed to, the result would almost certainly be reversed by litigation.

Yeah, Nils was saying something last night in his 5.5 page "response" about how it wouldn't even be an issue if something like this happened, and I told him that I had a slight notion that not quite everybody would be ok with this. Just because it could technically happen doesn't mean that it wouldn't cause a huge reaction among the voters.

 

[0sm0se]

But theoretically, they need not vote with the populace at all and I'm fairly certain that though litigation would be inevitable, I don't see how they would have any sort of recourse. The electorate determines the vote, not the populace, there is a functional gap between the voting public and the results.

Through my tone of outrage, I probably did exaggerate but however the voting public reacted and whatever arguement was presented in court, if the electorate stood by their decision to vote against popular opinion, we could litigate all we want and then sit on the results.