No wonder so many Americans don't vote!!

ACCBootlegGoddess

I've been reading up on the American election process a little bit...and it seems like the PEOPLE don't really elect the president....The electoral college does. I remember that George W got his first presidency cause of them (and Jeb Bush an that other woman he was banging at the time...forget her name).

My point is...if our system here in Canada were like that, I wouldn't be that inclined to vote either...I mean if these electors can vote any way that want (even if they tend to go by the popular vote) then WHY have a national election in the first place?? Seems like a waste of time to me.

You guys need to get rid of this electoral college shit and have the winner of the popular vote declared the winner of the election.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College for anyone out there who wants some information on the electoral college.

South of Seattle

Hey Mel. The Electoral college is a major problem IMO. I think in this election in particular. If McCain wins or loses, I guarantee he'll have lost the popular vote by a wide margin.

But by having the electoral college, it insures that the candidates visit all parts of the country though.

g under p

Don't understand it either but don't you know we find ways to do things here ass backward.

Peace

jimed14

South of Seattle wrote:

But by having the electoral college, it insures that the candidates visit all parts of the country though.

well, I'll disagree with this ... they only concentrate on 10 or so "battle ground" states (states that are close between the two candidates) ...

If you live in a state that is clearly going to vote for one of the candidates (like me here in California, which will vote for Obama) ... well, we will never see any of the candidates here, unless, they are raising money.

South of Seattle

jimed14 wrote:

well, I'll disagree with this ... they only concentrate on 10 or so "battle ground" states (states that are close between the two candidates) ...

If you live in a state that is clearly going to vote for one of the candidates (like me here in California, which will vote for Obama) ... well, we will never see any of the candidates here, unless, they are raising money.

Very True, but if the electoral college was disbanded, wouldn't they only be in the major markets? SF, LA, NYC, BOS, CHI, ATL, HOU?

They'd have no incentive to go to the battleground state of someplace like Ohio.

LikeAnOcean

The idea behind the electoral college simplified..

Pretend 51% of Americans move to California..

There is a major disaster there that cause people to vote irrationally..

they choose a moron president who promises them what they want, but completely fucks over the country. The other 49% are thinking rationally, but can't compete with the 51% freaked out Californians and in the end this moron president ends up fucking everyone because everyone in California freaked out..

The electoral college creates balance..

If that makes sense.

I used to be against it as well, but it makes sense to me now. It basically adds balance to address issues that effect different regions evenly.

PJ_Saluki

LikeAnOcean wrote:

The idea behind the electoral college simplified..

Pretend 51% of Americans move to California..

There is a major disaster there that cause people to vote irrationally..

they choose a moron president who promises them what they want, but completely fucks over the country. The other 49% are thinking rationally, but can't compete with the 51% freaked out Californians and in the end this moron president ends up fucking everyone because everyone in California freaked out..

The electoral college creates balance..

If that makes sense.

I used to be against it as well, but it makes sense to me now. It basically adds balance to address issues that effect different regions evenly.

We've already got the moron president and have had a major disaster in New Orleans (as well as a self-created one in Iraq). Looks like all we need is for more than half the population to move to Cali.

Flagg

jimed14 wrote:

well, I'll disagree with this ... they only concentrate on 10 or so "battle ground" states (states that are close between the two candidates) ...

If you live in a state that is clearly going to vote for one of the candidates (like me here in California, which will vote for Obama) ... well, we will never see any of the candidates here, unless, they are raising money.

Same here in Texas. It is going for McCain no question so neither candidate will campaign here.

Gonzo1977

ACCBootlegGoddess wrote:

I've been reading up on the American election process a little bit...and it seems like the PEOPLE don't really elect the president....The electoral college does. I remember that George W got his first presidency cause of them (and Jeb Bush an that other woman he was banging at the time...forget her name).

My point is...if our system here in Canada were like that, I wouldn't be that inclined to vote either...I mean if these electors can vote any way that want (even if they tend to go by the popular vote) then WHY have a national election in the first place?? Seems like a waste of time to me.

You guys need to get rid of this electoral college shit and have the winner of the popular vote declared the winner of the election.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College for anyone out there who wants some information on the electoral college.

Problem is in Canada...We don't vote for our Prime Minister either.

We vote for party members to vote for us.

Not much better

ACCBootlegGoddess

South of Seattle wrote:

Hey Mel. The Electoral college is a major problem IMO. I think in this election in particular. If McCain wins or loses, I guarantee he'll have lost the popular vote by a wide margin.

But by having the electoral college, it insures that the candidates visit all parts of the country though.

Hey Ricky,

I should have posted this thread on a day where I could have been here to reply lol. Anyways what good is going to more states...or ANY states for that matter going to do if at the end of the day it doesn't MATTER how the citizens of said state vote?? I think we can all agree...McCain is prob gonna lose the popular vote...but yet he can STILL be your next president...THAT is my biggest problem with your system and is why there are so many people out there who don't vote despite following the election and knowing about the issues.

ACCBootlegGoddess

Gonzo1977 wrote:

Problem is in Canada...We don't vote for our Prime Minister either.

We vote for party members to vote for us.

Not much better

Hi Gonzo...deepest armpits of Canada huh?? Hamilton perhaps??? lol sorry.

Anyways I'm not saying our system is perfect BUT at least whichever party gets in...is WHO the majority of Canadians WANT in power.
I agree that all our MP's are puppets of the party they represent and that our system doesn't ALLOW them to vote according to their conscience (ergo they really can't properly represent the interest of the voters in their ridings)....but there is less of a reason to NOT vote here then there is in the US. We CAN get a shitty Prime Minister/Party out if enough of us want too...not so in the US :(

The only thing that REALLY infuriated me was after the last Federal Election when that douchebag from one of the Toronto Ridings (forget his name) who ran AND WON as a Liberal...crossed the floor and joined the conservatives as a CABINET MINISTER no less...a WEEK after the election. That smells of deception to me....that the Conservatives KNEW that riding would never vote in someone running a a Conservative so they ran someone as a pawn...and had this asshat get the Liberal nom with the promise that if he won they'd give him a cabinet position or something. THAT I hate because the people of that riding WANTED and ELECTED a Liberal...NOT a PC!

Sorry this kinda turned into a rant....rant over

That said...I still believe in getting your voice heard, no matter how fruitless the effort might prove to be in the short term. If you don't participate you really don't have a right to say shit later. IMO

_

South of Seattle wrote:

Very True, but if the electoral college was disbanded, wouldn't they only be in the major markets? SF, LA, NYC, BOS, CHI, ATL, HOU?

They'd have no incentive to go to the battleground state of someplace like Ohio.

Do they really NEED to go everywhere in this day and age of technology?

blondieblue227

LikeAnOcean wrote:

The idea behind the electoral college simplified..

Pretend 51% of Americans move to California..

There is a major disaster there that cause people to vote irrationally..

they choose a moron president who promises them what they want, but completely fucks over the country. The other 49% are thinking rationally, but can't compete with the 51% freaked out Californians and in the end this moron president ends up fucking everyone because everyone in California freaked out..

The electoral college creates balance..

If that makes sense.

I used to be against it as well, but it makes sense to me now. It basically adds balance to address issues that effect different regions evenly.

Thanks for your post. I didn’t do well in government class in high school and was too embarrassed to ask about it here.

And also, aren’t the majority of votes supposed to be represented in electoral vote? Your representative is supposed to vote with his citizens?

Why do people use the electoral vote as a reason not to vote?
if it's truly unfair, why don't they get rid of electorial voting?

dignin

ACCBootlegGoddess wrote:

Anyways I'm not saying our system is perfect BUT at least whichever party gets in...is WHO the majority of Canadians WANT in power.

not really true, if the Conservatives get around 40% of the popular vote...they will most likely have a majority in parliament ....thats not who the majority of Canadians voted for though.

FiveB247x

The main reason most Americans do not vote is not because of the Electoral College, in fact, most Americans have zero idea what that even is. Most Americans do not vote because they are un-interested, do not feel they can make a difference, and overall have a general feeling that such things don't impact them directly. You can also make the argument that the political system (over the course of history) has disregarded the disenfranchised (minorities, women, etc) so much that people don't care to buy into it, and in all honesty there's no real tell tale sign that it's changed that much to incorporate them no matter what the results are. Lastly, people are very gullible and believe anything they see or read in the media and would rather not be involved and just leave everything up to those in charge to lead the way, no matter what the results are.

SVRDhand13

FiveB247x wrote:

The main reason most Americans do not vote is not because of the Electoral College, in fact, most Americans have zero idea what that even is. Most Americans do not vote because they are un-interested, do not feel they can make a difference, and overall have a general feeling that such things don't impact them directly. You can also make the argument that the political system (over the course of history) has disregarded the disenfranchised (minorities, women, etc) so much that people don't care to buy into it, and in all honesty there's no real tell tale sign that it's changed that much to incorporate them no matter what the results are. Lastly, people are very gullible and believe anything they see or read in the media and would rather not be involved and just leave everything up to those in charge to lead the way, no matter what the results are.

So basically what you're saying is that most Americans are stupid. And if you're not saying it... I am .

FiveB247x

I would say generically, as a whole, that is one of the several factors we have the political climate that we do.... but not the sole reason.

SVRDhand13 wrote:

So basically what you're saying is that most Americans are stupid. And if you're not saying it... I am .

ACCBootlegGoddess

yield6 wrote:

not really true, if the Conservatives get around 40% of the popular vote...they will most likely have a majority in parliament ....thats not who the majority of Canadians voted for though.

If this happens it will be because the other 60% of the vote will be split between the Liberals, NDP, Greens and the Bloq. I can't see any of them having more than 40% of the popular vote on their own.

blondieblue227

One person can make a difference…….

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/blondieblue227/myspace/starfishB.jpg

bootlegger10

ACCBootlegGoddess wrote:

I remember that George W got his first presidency cause of them (and Jeb Bush an that other woman he was banging at the time...forget her name).

My point is...if our system here in Canada were like that, I wouldn't be that inclined to vote either...I mean if these electors can vote any way that want (even if they tend to go by the popular vote) then WHY have a national election in the first place??

1. So we've gone tabloid on this board? Prove that he was banging her.

2. The electoral college does not TEND to go by the popular vote. It goes by the popular vote.

Edit: I meant the electoral college votes in each state based off the popular vote of that state. It does not 'tend' to vote by the popular vote.

blondieblue227

bootlegger10 wrote:

2. The electoral college does not TEND to go by the popular vote. It goes by the popular vote.

That’s what I thought.

Do people really not understand this, or is it a moronic excuse they use not to vote?


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