Is your vote determining the next president or is it the electoral college (who are hand picked by Kerry/Bush?
Are you going to vote?
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Yes I am going to vote. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't each states electoral vote determined by the popular vot?.
by the states poular vote yes, but because of the electoral vote each state has, it is possible for the national popular vote to be different than the electoral college. It is also possible for the electoral college to be a complete tie....
electoral college tie has happened !!!
Only twice in American history has this situation come up. In the election of 1800open link in new window, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both tied with 73 electoral votes, while 130 votes were split among three other candidates. In 1824open link in new window, Andrew Jackson received 99 votes, John Quincy Adams got 84 votes, and two other candidates took the remaining 78 votes. In both these cases, no candidate received a majority of the total electoral votes cast. With today's two-party system, the most likely way two candidates could fail to receive a majority of votes is to tie 269-269. While some in the media would call this a "constitutional crisis", it is not. The 12th Amendmentopen link in new window clearly spells out what should be done when this situation arises.
click here for more
Only twice in American history has this situation come up. In the election of 1800open link in new window, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both tied with 73 electoral votes, while 130 votes were split among three other candidates. In 1824open link in new window, Andrew Jackson received 99 votes, John Quincy Adams got 84 votes, and two other candidates took the remaining 78 votes. In both these cases, no candidate received a majority of the total electoral votes cast. With today's two-party system, the most likely way two candidates could fail to receive a majority of votes is to tie 269-269. While some in the media would call this a "constitutional crisis", it is not. The 12th Amendmentopen link in new window clearly spells out what should be done when this situation arises.
click here for more
Why bother with the Electoral College in 2004? Why not use the popular vote as the determinant of the president? I really never understood the Electoral College function in this day in age.
Are you voting "for" a candidate? Or "against" a candidate?
(I suspect that most people are voting "against" than "for".)
(I suspect that most people are voting "against" than "for".)
Why the electoral college??? Because the parties in control of this coutry currently still feel that the general public is not educated enough to choose the right president. Flashback to 2000 Bush lost the popular vote by ~500,000 votes in Florida. But thanks to his good 'ol brother Jeb being in control of the supreme court there they made the decision to hand deliver the electoral votes over to George W. How nice of them..
I can't wait until the that the other political parties in this country get their fair share of air time, and media coverage, as well as involvement in the debates. I find it amazing in this day and age with the diversity of this country, and the abundance of internat access, that 70% of the people have never even heard of any of the other candidates. Also I don't see how 2 well groomed people can somehow fully represent this country and it's people.
When will we take our blinders off??? This country is headed for a political revolution and I for one can't wait. We need to storm Area 51, raid the classified documents that have been hidden from us for WAY WAY too long, and take back our rights and our freedom!!
VOTE, if you don't then YOU LOSE, and we all suffer!!
*political rant off*
I can't wait until the that the other political parties in this country get their fair share of air time, and media coverage, as well as involvement in the debates. I find it amazing in this day and age with the diversity of this country, and the abundance of internat access, that 70% of the people have never even heard of any of the other candidates. Also I don't see how 2 well groomed people can somehow fully represent this country and it's people.
When will we take our blinders off??? This country is headed for a political revolution and I for one can't wait. We need to storm Area 51, raid the classified documents that have been hidden from us for WAY WAY too long, and take back our rights and our freedom!!
VOTE, if you don't then YOU LOSE, and we all suffer!!
*political rant off*
BFG said:
There is also something called "Faithless Electors" where members of the Electoral College who, for whatever reason, do not vote for their party's designated candidate. Since the founding of the Electoral College, there have been 156 faithless Electors.
Yes, I will be voting today. In Colorado, we have another race for State Senator between Ken Salazar and Pete Coors. That should be interesting.
There is also an ammendment to vote on, which would award electoral votes (Colorado has 9) based on percentage of the popular vote. Currently, the 9 electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who gets the majority of the popular vote, but this ammendment would award a portion of those 9 votes to both candidates based on the percentage of the popular vote that they get.
I think it is a bad idea, because it reduces the importance of carrying the vote in the state as a whole.
There is also an ammendment to vote on, which would award electoral votes (Colorado has 9) based on percentage of the popular vote. Currently, the 9 electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who gets the majority of the popular vote, but this ammendment would award a portion of those 9 votes to both candidates based on the percentage of the popular vote that they get.
I think it is a bad idea, because it reduces the importance of carrying the vote in the state as a whole.
I live in NY and it's already a given that Kerry gets the nod. I'm still voting anyhow....and along the same line.
craigs2553 said:
Popular vote gets all the states electoral votes though, which is stupid. There is an amendment on the Colorado Ballot that will allow the splitting of votes in Colorado so that in the future the electoral votes may be split, which is fair and just.
I voted today, for the first time ever. It took until I was 33 years old to care one way or the other. Basically I was just voting against George Bush -- and there were a couple proposals to amend the Michigan Constitution that I voted against. Ignored everything else on the ballot.
I like the idea of splitting the electoral vote according to the popular vote ( or just getting rid of the electoral vote altogether). It just doesn't make sense to me that if a candidate wins the state's popular vote by a single vote, he/she gets all the electoral votes. It also seems to me to undermine the ever-so-popular idea that every vote counts. If electoral votes are all that really matter in electing the President and you vote for the candidate that doesn't win your state, your vote isn't actually getting much done, is it? In other words, if you live in a state that always votes for a certain party by a wide margin, and you're a member of the other party, what's the point?
If anyone's curious, the thing that finally got me out to the polls is that I don't want George Bush to be the guy who appoints new Supreme Court Justices when these geezers start dropping in the next four years.
Here's something I'm curious about : Do you always vote? Or does it take some special issue/candidate to motivate you? How old were you when you first voted?
I like the idea of splitting the electoral vote according to the popular vote ( or just getting rid of the electoral vote altogether). It just doesn't make sense to me that if a candidate wins the state's popular vote by a single vote, he/she gets all the electoral votes. It also seems to me to undermine the ever-so-popular idea that every vote counts. If electoral votes are all that really matter in electing the President and you vote for the candidate that doesn't win your state, your vote isn't actually getting much done, is it? In other words, if you live in a state that always votes for a certain party by a wide margin, and you're a member of the other party, what's the point?
If anyone's curious, the thing that finally got me out to the polls is that I don't want George Bush to be the guy who appoints new Supreme Court Justices when these geezers start dropping in the next four years.
Here's something I'm curious about : Do you always vote? Or does it take some special issue/candidate to motivate you? How old were you when you first voted?
